Half-Year Recap (Part 3)

As I said in my previous post, May was an eventful month, both for me and my family. I have already talked about Vanessa's birthday (which we actually celebrated in June!), but I'm going to focus on three events that immediately come to mind:

1. My car crash; 
2. The passing of my paternal grandpa; and 
3. My cousin Vivian's wedding.

When I look back on all three events, I can see just how abundantly God has blessed me and our extended family.

First, the car crash. How did it happen? For those of you whom I haven't told yet, it happened on May 6th, my last day of replacement teaching at Viewbank College. I had just finished tying up all the loose ends for the teacher who was coming back, and for some reason I felt in a rush to get home. I drove out of the school and turned into Cheryl Grove, heading downhill with a sharp left turn at the bottom of the slope. Furthermore, the road was wet, a fact that didn't register in my mind until those fateful few seconds when I knew I was in big trouble.

I carelessly cruised down the hill, until I suddenly realized I was going too fast. I then put my foot on the brake, only for the wheels to lock and skid. At that point, I knew in my mind I had lost control and uttered, as any normal person might, "Oh shit!"

The car mounted the curb and smashed head-on into a concrete power pole. Although the car was written off, there were a number of things to be grateful for. First, nobody else was involved in the accident. Second, I know now what to do in case I crash a car and write it off, not that I hope it happens again. Most importantly, I emerged from the car shaken but unhurt, except for a bruised right knee and slight whiplash.

With the generous assistance of the nearby residents, I was able to call a tow truck to take the car back to my place. Once home, I called my friend Gabriel (check out his garage's website here!) to come and assess the damage. He confirmed my worst fears that the car was a write-off, and took me through what to do next: de-registration, policy refund, and towing by salvage wreckers.

I now have a new car and, having learned my lesson the hard way, pray that I will get several years out of it before I can afford a new car.

On May 12, almost a week after my accident, came the news we were dreading but knew had to eventually happen. My paternal grandfather Wang Zhongqing (王鍾慶), whose 100th Chinese birthday we had celebrated in 2010, was admitted to On Luck nursing home (next to my old school Donvale Christian College) at the end of March after grandma had done all she could taking care of him on her own. Nonetheless, my dad and other relatives took turns bringing her every day to the nursing home to tend to grandpa, a testimony which moved the staff at the facility deeply.

On Mothers Day, we brought grandma over for dinner, and when I inquired about grandpa, she said he was "not good", which meant it was very serious. I found out later that he was no longer taking in even water or milk. Early the following morning, we received a phone call from the nursing home informing us that grandpa's situation was deteriorating and asked whether we would like to send for an ambulance. Dad referred the callers to grandma, who decided to let him be. The news that he had gone reached us via Uncle Ambrose a bit before 9 a.m. Although the timing of his passing was somewhat awkward, with my cousin's wedding the following Sunday, we are thankful to God that he departed peacefully. Indeed, when my brothers and I went to pay our respects at the nursing home that evening, he looked as though he was asleep.

His funeral on the Wednesday after my cousin's wedding was a wonderful opportunity for us to thank God for his amazing life and say thank you and goodbye to a man who has left a great legacy to his descendants during his 103 years on the earth. Rest in peace, 爺爺, I look forward to catching up with you in Heaven.

These next few years will be weddings galore, and by the end of this year alone I will have attended at least five! On May 18th, I attended my first wedding of the year, that of my cousin Vivian and her long-time partner Kevin. It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful day, and among other things I was finally able to introduce Vanessa to my beloved cousin Heidi, who had come over from Hong Kong with Auntie Patsy for the wedding. I was encouraged by Kevin's testimony and how God has shaped him into a mature and responsible young man, without losing his bubbly character. One of the most touching moments of any reception is the dance with the bride and her father. This dance was especially poignant, as Vivian was wearing her late mother's wedding dress for the dance. It's been six years now, but I miss Auntie Pearl more than ever, especially now that I have become a teacher.  

Tomorrow morning, the grand spectacle that is the FIFA World Cup comes to an end with the Final between Argentina and Germany at the Maracanã in Rio, both deserving finalists in their own way. Kick-off is at 5 a.m. Melbourne time, for which I am very grateful, because I will most likely be able to watch the whole game, assuming it doesn't go into extra time. I shall quickly add here that I am returning to McKinnon Secondary College tomorrow, replacing a German teacher who has taken long-service leave for the whole term. Although I love the school, it is a considerable distance from home (40 minutes by car one way!), so if the game kicked off at 6 a.m., I would miss a significant chunk of the second half because I would be driving to school.

Up to this stage, I have supported La Albiceleste, but for the final I'm going to jump ship and support Die Mannschaft. After all, I have more in common with Germany than with Argentina. I will still be happy if Argentina wins, but given what a wonderful tournament this has been, I hope most of all that the final will be a climax befitting of the occasion.

OK, it's off to bed for me. Cheers and God bless!

Half-Year Recap (Part 2)

After returning from my European adventure, one of the things I looked forward to was catching up with Vanessa. Thankfully I didn't have to wait too long.

Our first Valentine's Day together was a special occasion, as we were finally reunited after one-and-a-half months of separation. We exchanged gifts: I got her a teddy bear dressed in lederhosen from Kitzbühel, which she named Hans, and she got me a cuddly toy tiger, which I christened Figaro Jr.

Because Valentine's Day this year coincided with the Lantern Festival (元宵節), the last day of the Chinese New Year festivities, we stopped by at Dessert Story after dinner to eat glutinous rice balls (湯圓). We ended the day with a visit to my beloved grandma before I drove Vanessa home.

I thank God that our relationship continues to grow steadily as we get to know each other better. In March, I finally had the opportunity to meet Vanessa's older brother, Myles, and his fiancée, Huong. Thankfully it seems that they have accepted me, because not long afterward I received the formal invitation to their wedding in Dunedin in December this year. Even though Vanessa had told me about it last year, I dared not assume I would be invited just because I was her boyfriend.


Then we had the chance to celebrate our birthdays, mine in April and Vanessa's in May. My 28th birthday was easily the best since my 21st back in 2007. While it was fantastic to celebrate over dinner with close friends and family at Svago Ristorante and receive some very nice presents, I could not have guessed the surprise that my girlfriend had in store. She had asked one of her friends, who is a professional cake maker (click here for more info), to make a birthday cake for me in the shape of a red panda, one of my favourite animals. When it came out after dinner, I squealed like a woman on Oprah, it was so adorable!

For Vanessa's birthday in May, I got my idea for her present thanks to a double date we had a few weeks prior with Andrew, my old school friend who got married last year, and his lovely wife Amanda. They introduced us to Claude, the Kitchen Companion, a cute tablet / cookbook holder. Their one is blue, but since Vanessa's favourite colour is burgundy, I got her a red Claude, since that was the closest colour they had. Thankfully she was very happy with her present, and I hope she gets a lot out of it. May was a busy month for our family, and I will save explanations for my next post.

As I said in my post yesterday, I was at a German teacher colleague's house this morning with her family for the much-anticipated World Cup semifinal showdown between Brazil and Germany. As my colleague is Brazilian, she was of course supporting her home country, while I did my best at the start to remain neutral. But my reaction to the first German goal from Thomas Müller betrayed my real sentiments: I jumped up and yelled GOOOOOOOOOALLLL!! But never in my wildest dreams could I, nor anyone else for that matter, have foreseen what would happen next.

In six minutes of mayhem which would shake Brazilian football to the core, from the 23rd to 29th minute, the score suddenly blew out to 5-0, thanks to a combination of Brazil's inept defence (and even that is probably too nice a description!) and Germany's clinical finishing. I had said before the game that I wouldn't be surprised if Germany won, provided they came out to play with a ruthless attitude, and that is EXACTLY what they did. The final score had to be seen to be believed: 7-1! It was a result that set numerous records, among them the first time a team had scored 7 goals in a semifinal, as well as Brazil's heaviest loss in its football history.

I had read in the day leading up to the game that a Brazilian voodoo priest was planning to place a curse on one of the German players. As a disciple of Jesus, I know (and now understand why) black magic is a strictly off-limits area, and that those who dabble in it do so at great personal risk. So I thank God for causing the curse to backfire, in dramatic fashion, on the Brazilians.

Now I am about to head off to bed to try and get some sleep before watching the second semifinal to see who Germany's opponents will be. I hope you enjoy the match between Argentina and the Netherlands. I am almost certain it will be a closer game than the carnage we saw this morning.

Cheers and God bless!

Half-Year Recap (Part 1)

Greetings, dear readers!

Wow, I can't believe this is my first post for the year, how time has flown! Well, it's good to be back, after several busy months. As always, when I leave things for too long, there's too much to include in one post.

It has been several months now since coming back from my second trip to Europe, this time with members of MUCS, the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic (known colloquially as the Phil or the RMP), and the Chamber Strings of Melbourne (CSM). Although I had intended to write some posts while overseas, our schedule was a hectic one which left me with little time to put something together.
To summarize, the tour was just about as good as it promised to be, barring a few slight personal hiccups. Everything was organized through the Salzburg-based Chorus, Culture and Art Concert Tours (click here for more info), whose services I would gladly recommend and use again. Our Austrian bus drivers, Werner and Rudi, drove us around with minimum fuss and maximum professionalism. Our effervescent tour guides, Eva from Slovenia and Greta, an Aussie-born Austrian ski instructor, were at once warm, funny and, when needed, able to whip us into line. After all, adults can sometimes be more immature than kids!
Among the many highlights of the tour, several stand out:

• Making new friends among the touring party;
• Catching up with relatives in Holland for a few days before the tour, and meeting for the first time my second nephews, Julian and Kato, and niece, Mimi;
• Watching the world-famous Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) perform two of my favourite symphonies, Beethoven 6 and 7, at the Concertgebouw; and
• Finally visiting, and falling in love with, Austria.

Then there were the various venues we performed at, some of them absolutely unforgettable, the appreciative audiences, and the local groups we performed with, all combined to make the tour a memorable lifetime experience.
I was also glad to escape Melbourne before two major heatwaves hit the city in January, but the day after I arrived back it reached 40 degrees Celsius. With the combination of heat and jet lag, it was not surprising that it was a very unproductive day!

Now to fast forward to the immediate present, and the 2014 FIFA World Cup is now down to the last four teams. The Brazil vs Germany semifinal will take place tomorrow morning (Melbourne time) and then Argentina v Netherlands the following day. In spite of concerns that Brazil would not be ready in time before the first kick-off, this edition of the World Cup will go down in history as one of the best, at least in terms of the quality of football witnessed. Of course, some incidents and refereeing decisions have been controversial, but it wouldn't be a normal World Cup without those.
I will be going tomorrow morning to the house of a German teaching colleague (who is from Brazil!) to watch the game. It will be tough for Brazil without their captain Thiago Silva, who is one of the best defenders in the world, and their star Neymar Jr, who was accidentally (at least in my opinion!) injured in the quarterfinal against Colombia. Germany will probably never have an opportunity like this again, but even so it will be a tough task to defeat the host nation. Nonetheless, I wish both teams all the best.

Stay tuned for more posts soon. Cheers and God bless!