a first draft of my personal mission statement

I am reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. As a result I have been challenged to write a personal mission statement. Here it is, my first version.

I want to draw close to God and hear his voice.
I want to be a best friend to Anthony, and a support to help him grow.
I want to help students experience and explore mathematics with the end of understanding and appreciating it. I want to empower other teachers to do the same with their students.
I want to bless others with friendship and be mutually encouraged and loved.
I want to bless others with whom I interact by listening to them and valuing them.
I will do what I say I am going to do.
I will look ahead to tomorrow's work today.
I will solicit feedback, be reflective, and seek to grow.
I will seek to maintain my health and fitness.
I will be grateful.

Christmas decorating

We always travel to my family at Christmas. It's a commitment we made when Anthony "stole" me from them to live in another country after getting married. As a result, the Christmas decorating in our own flat is usually minimal. We had an artificial tree when Matt and April lived with us (it was theirs). One year I thought we were settling down since we had bought our own place. So I bought a living Christmas tree in a pot, planning to keep it alive and reuse it for many years. We moved to Hong Kong just three months later. Sigh.

But we still have a bit of Christmas stuff and I put it out today. There are decorations on our dining room mirror and balcony window. Also, we have a Christmas runner on the table in our entryway.

Ant bought me a poinsettia yesterday! That is an act of love because he knows how much I love them.

things for which I am thankful today

1. A friend brought me a pot of Marmite Gold from his trip to England last week. It's a gimmick but I think it's great. It made me smile all morning!

2. We got a new washing machine and it is so quiet! Our old one was so noisy that even with the kitchen door closed we couldn't talk to each other without shouting. It also didn't spin properly about half the time, which meant that a lot of loads of laundry had to be washed through two cycles. That made laundry take a lot longer than necessary. I am so happy that we have this new one.

3. I complain a bit about the many passwords related to online banking, but I am really very grateful for connected global bank accounts that allow me to shop online in several countries! heehee.

4. Talking to my Grammie on the phone is like a warm hug. I love chatting with her.

5. Having coffee and dinner with my best friend in Hong Kong - she always brightens up my day. I love our mid-week meet-ups.

What are you grateful for today?

mundane life things

It is a long time since I have blogged here. So I am using the only productivity strategy I have: just start with any small step. Thus, a post of mundane items. Its sole purpose it to restart a habit. This post has no other intrinsic value.

I have a mosquito bite on my elbow. What an awkward place for a bite. I have learned that I eat with my elbows on the table a lot. My grandfather would sing at me to chastise me if he could see.

I ate spaghetti with tomato sauce for lunch and accompanied this with a bowl of cherry tomatoes. Here's to more tomatoes! I love their summery flavour.

It's almost too hot for running now, except in the early morning. Sadly my running partner can only meet after work. It has been very sweaty recently. Also, I desperately need some sports sunglasses that I can wear while running.

I have started attending a Bible study group again for the first time in more than a year. It feels good to get some weekly Christian input from friends. And we eat together, which is good.

new year's resolutions

I found it a bit harder to bring myself to make resolutions this year. It seems harder than usual to do something every day. Work has been busy since the school year started and I took on an extra responsibility. But I am aware that in the past my resolutions have been very motivating and have usually helped me accomplish a lot. So it's time to just go for it, and make some decision, darn it.

1. Run in a 10 km event - I have my heart set on the 10 km component of the Great Wall Marathon. It's in May, which gives me plenty of time to actually gain enough fitness to run 10 km. In the back of my mind there is a feeling that this may or may not happen since I have had a few injury problems since starting to run. As a result I have been reading about how to avoid injury. Cross training, for instance. Any other suggestions are gratefully received! At school there is a once-a-week zumba dance exercise class starting up, and I'm looking forward to that.

2. Read through the Bible. The two other times I have done this I have found it to be so heartening. The first time I read the whole Bible in a year was in 2000, and I was amazed by how God was working in history as a whole and that it all really did point to Jesus. This year I want to make it more fresh for me and so I've decided to read in The Message version. (Read it yourself for free on Bible Gateway.)

3. Reflect on what I read. I have a little diary that I use to pray in writing and note thoughts down. (I got it from Dad's church and it's published by The Bible League of Canada.)

4. Keep in touch with family and friends more regularly. This is a recurring theme for my resolutions. This year I plan to keep track my success (hopefully) in my diary. I will try to email, call, or write to someone each day. As a side note, I realise that keeping this blog more regularly updated will probably help, too. (Thanks to Sarah for her encouragement. I am glad someone still checks it!)

So, the floor is open to you. What are your resolutions? Do you find them encouraging?

my summer holiday in numbers

34: days away from home



5: cities and towns visited:
Kelowna (BC, Canada)
London (UK)
Halifax (NS, Canada)
Miramichi (NB. Canada)
Ann Arbor (MI, USA)
Shanghai (China)

14: take offs and landings


14 hours 52 minutes: longest flight, from Chicago to Hong Kong
1 hour 3 minutes: shortest flight, from Detroit to Ann Arbor

17: sleeping tablets used in the avoidance of jet lag
12: times I went out jogging in the avoidance of jet lag
6: jogging partners: Pari, Judith, Claude, Nyarku, Andrew, and Katie

4: farmers' markets visited



21 kg: luggage with which I left
37 kg: luggage with which I returned
900: the number of snack-sized zip lock bags I brought back to HK to use in my classroom
1.2 kg: mass of 900 snack-sized zip lock bags

1: wedding attended, for Sarah and Eric


1: bridal shower attended, for Dawn
2: baby showers attended, both for Helen


3: pregnant bumps I stroked, and 1 smaller one that I admired: Sonya, Helen, Sara (below), and Carolyn


1: happy-you-finished-your-PhD party attended, for Micah


1: baby baptism attended: Julia Iris



5: novels read: Room by Emma Donoghue, Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro, Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, Little Bee by Chris Cleave
0: airline movies watched

1166: photographs taken

October trip to the UK

Ant's Nan, Etta, and Rachele's daughter, Kaitlin. She is our first niece!




Rachele helped Kaitin model her Hong Kong fashion.


Helen and I chatting--it was great to visit with her again, and Pari and Geary.


Pari and Geary both liked their new Hong Kong newspaper classified aprons. Early Christmas presents. :)

flowers and rain

Anna, my sister-in-law, has started a photo blog that I love! She posts a photo each day from her travels and experiences and the stories are memorable. Today's photo is one that I took!


When we both lived in the UK I got to visit them more frequently and I visited on Easter weekend when both Micah and Anna got confirmed. This is Anna's hair on that beautiful day. Click through to her blog to read more about it.

Yesterday I stayed in the flat for a quiet day in as there was a torrential downpour outside. This kind of rain keeps Hong Kong very lush. I sat in the window nook of the guest bedroom and ate yoghurt and read my book. It's so nice to be inside when this is going on outside. The view from the nook is a steep hillside covered in trees and a few buildings down the road.

Sydney

I have just come back from a week in Australia. What a nice surprise--I asked my school if I could get some International Baccalaureate training and they booked me on a three-day course in Sydney. I stayed on a few days more so I could visit Micah & Anna and Chris & Tam. I didn't do too much sight-seeing this time, instead I visited, ate food, did some window shopping, played games, drank wine, went to church, and read books. What a nice holiday!


Micah and I spent a day in Newtown, a shabby and hip suburb of Sydney. There is a shop there that sells only buttons (above). We browsed at the used book stores and the antique stores. I bought a few pieces of old cutlery, since food styling seems to be one of my main hobbies at the moment. Micah bought a book and we ate some excellent Mexcian fast food. But it was really just the time chatting and wandering that made this a memorable day out.

I went with Anna to her work and saw the offices that she is soon to leave for good as she takes a break. We ate food, which is actually my main hobby, I admit. I got a tour of the complex in which she works. Since I have never worked in an office I was quite interesting in how noisy it was (not that much) and how friendly her co-workers were. I think it would be strange to see everyone else making phone calls or working on their computers while you were doing your work.


I had dinner at Chris and Tam's place and saw Ethan--now a big boy who can almost walk and has learned a few words. He also knows baby sign language. Wow--what an idea! I had never heard of it but I guess it's quite well known in Australia. Ethan can communicate that he is thirsty, hungry, or done eating using signs Chris and Tam have taught him. Tam says it keeps him calm and less frustrated and that it also helps toddlers learn to speak more confidently in time. What a great idea.


After meeting Tam for coffee at her work, I wandered around downtown Sydney and saw the Queen Victoria Building, with its beautiful floors and windows.


The QVB is a very upmarket mall; the main attraction for me was the building itself. I love the tiling on the floors (and took more pictures so I might be able to turn them into a lesson activity one day).


The rest of my time was taken up with relaxing with Micah & Anna and meeting Norman & Natalie, their flatmates. Anna has started a blog, Anna's Ambles, and we talked blogging a bit. Please have a look at it: each post shows a beautiful image from Anna's travels and she shares the story behind each memory.

happy father's day

It was so good to have Mum and Dad visiting recently. I'm glad they made the long journey to see us and also Micah and Anna in Sydney. A big thanks to Dad (and Mum) making me a confident adult by taking me around Europe as a child and including me in decisions. I remember more than one occasion being consulted on where to live and being taken to house viewings. They urged us kids to pray about our move to Romania before we went there, and I was impressed that all our views were taken into account.


My Dad is inspirational in his care of others. He is willing to help anyone at any time (perhaps this is one reason why he is so good at his job). He has helped me out of a few rough spots, like when I crashed the family car as a teenager. I called him on the policeman's phone, "Dad, I've had an accident." "That's fine; are you alright?" he replied straight away. He didn't even ask about the car, which was totally destroyed.


He's always been supportive of me (and of Paul, Micah, and Mum). His example as a hard worker during his PhD undoubtedly inspired me to work hard at university and has made a success out of me. And he's inspired me in his Christian faith. He shows dedication to studying the Bible day by day that reminds me of the book title: "a long obedience in the same direction". (Together with my Mum, the prayer woman, I have pretty good role models to look up to.)

Thanks to my Dad, for his unfailing love over the years. Happy Father's Day!

visit from Mum and Dad

Here are some photos taken my Mum when she was here with Dad for a visit. They were so useful to us to arrive just when we were moving into our flat. They helped build the beds the first night they arrived. And everyday when we went off to work, Mum came back form her adventures with another little item to make life better at home.

Dad was away for a bit more than a week teaching a course in Indonesia. Mum spent most of her days traipsing around the city, armed with her Octopus card for public transport. On her quieter days she looked out the windows of our apartment and watched the ships going by.


There are a lot of fountains in Hong Kong (water is a big feature in Feng Shui.) Here is Mum standing inside one of the fountains in Hong Kong Park.


Mum took a bus to central that she loved because it curved along a very improbable route. Such steep, winding roads the bus goes on! The ramp in this picture is about ten stories above ground level. It's amazing that the bus careens around these corners right outside someone's living room window.


Mum and Dad were quite taken with the juxtaposition between the tall, shiny buildings and the packed lanes between them. The lanes are really interesting to explore, with little market stalls of food, clothes, and odds and ends.


I'm a little behind with posting about the last few weeks. Thanks for your patience. :-)

visit to the Peak

Ant and I took Mum and Dad to visit the Peak today. We also met up with Matt, Bree and Jo Beth there. We had a nice lunch at one of the restaurants overlooking the city. The views were really great even though there was a bit of a humid haze over the city.

Matt and Bree left with Jo Beth to go do some shopping and we headed out on a walk around the Peak Circle Walk. We looked out over the lush south of the island and the city on the north side. It took us about an hour and a half to walk around, stopping frequently to take pictures and marvel at the scenery. (Mum, Dad, and I all brought our cameras.) It was hot and we didn't go very fast.


I can see why the Peak is a definite must-do for all visitors to Hong Kong. I am looking forward to being there on a more clear day and also riding up on the tram next time.

trip to Liverpool

Ant and I spent last weekend visiting his family and friends in Liverpool. One of the highlights was seeing Laura, a friend who used to live in London and has now returned to her roots in the North West. Ant, always the joker, pulled this face without Laura even noticing.

We also enjoyed seeing Ant's sisters. His sister Rachele has had a baby since we last saw her. We met our niece, Kaitlin, who is a gorgeous and placid baby. It was fantastic to try to make her laugh.

New Year's Eve

Ant, Mum, Dad, Jeff, and I went over to Grammie and Grandad's for our end of the year celebrations. Everyone felt quite mellow so it was a quiet evening of cards, reading, and eating.


I was practicing with my new camera while the others were playing cards. Ant loves 45s and he looks forward to the family games all year.


Mum and Jeff were looking at Grandad's new reference book and saw that on the alphabets page, the Chinese characters were the text of John 3:16. Jeff pointed out a few words since each character represents one word. It must be so hard to learn Chinese! The characters are pronounced differently for Mandarin and Cantonese.


At about eleven o'clock we had a snack of crisps, nachos, and cakes. Grammie served these fruit cake bars and Hello Dolly squares (below). "I wonder why they are called Hello Dolly squares." I asked. Without missing a beat, Grandad quipped, "They can't even talk back!"

Merry Christmas

How wonderful it is to be with family for Christmas. My mother was hosting the big dinner this year, and she did a great job. Grammie supplied the mince pies (above) and a few other key items. Mum made the turkey and I helped a bit with the vegetables. Ant fluffed the mashed potatoes, Dad cleaned the whole house, and Paul moved furniture. There were fifteen of us and it was wonderful.


Two games of cards were set up after lunch. In the living room Ant and Grandad took on Linda (and Glenn).


In the kitchen Paul is chatting, while at the cards table in the dining room Dad and Lillian were playing with...


...Grammie and Katherine. I was happily reading and observing from my easy chair. Thanks to God for Jesus, his indescribable gift. And thanks also for all the gifts he has given us, including family and food.