So we’ve been doing about 60 to 80 km each ride about once a week. Each member of the group (4 of us at present) had fallen at least once, and some more often, with the exception of myself (up till last Tuesday). In fact, Tony had even broken his collar bone in a rather nasty spill.

So last Tuesday, there I was, pretty smug in being the only one who had not fallen. I even recall some rides back when Frank told me it wasn’t a matter of if, but when, I would fall, and I had told him that “I’m pretty skilled, so I’m not so sure about that prediction”. Well Tuesday morning, Joo Ann was commenting about how he had damaged his cycle computer in a fall and how he did not want to get another one. I smugly quipped “Well, don’t fall so often”.  I was joking of course, but the man upstairs has his own brand of humour; because 2 mins later, I found myself sprawled on the ground, with some painful cuts and abrasions!

The whole thing was quite funny, but when something like that happens to you; it actually strengthens your faith in an almighty yet very personal God. Yes, I was joking about being the only one who hadn’t fallen, but deep down, there was some pride and arrogance about that fact too. So when He took me down a notch, it was actually quite a faith experience. And I realised that there was a lot of care taken in his ’strike’. I was hurt just enough to suffer some pain and to realise my arrogance, but not enough to cause serious injury or permanent damage, which could have easily happened as well!

The Lord truly works in mysterious ways.

I can’t believe it’s been 21 years since I held my baby girl in my arms for the very first time.  Time flies and we are all getting on in years; but it’s been a most satisfying life journey for me so far…

Photos can be found here.

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Well, the next day, we went to test drive the Prado (a 2nd hand model), and Tony came along as well. And just like him, we decided to purchase it. I am now waiting for delivery.

I’ve been spending the past few days reading up on 4w driving and looking up clubs which I could join. I shall be attending some of the club meetings and see where we go from there.

We could never have done this in Singapore…

The question is:  Do blogs wax as well as wane?  Mine is waxing slightly, mainly because I’ve upgraded wordpress as well as my web host.

Let’s see how long this wax period lasts…

Anyway, the Pallottine Youth Encounter at Milgrove was a stay-in encounter for youth, and we had participants from Canada, USA, Belize, India, South Africa, Brazil, and a few other countries.  The Milgrove encounter was from 4th July to 9th July and most of the participants found the encounter to be very beneficial, in terms of spiritual renewal and community building.  We had a very large number of priests, and it was refreshing to see a mass con-celebrated by 7 or 9 priests.  My 4 older kids attended the Milgrove encounter, and I was there most of the time as well.

After Milgrove, the participants were then provided with home-stay with hosts from our parish church.  And for the next few days, we attended some organised church activities as well as activities of the Melbourne days in the diocese, in preparation for WYD in Sydney. 

The group then travelled up to Sydney by bus and was there from 14th July to 21st July.  Tony and I drove up in a car, as we needed the car to run various errands whilst in Sydney.  We had some last minute accommodation and transport hiccups, but thankfully all problems were solved smoothly and on time.  Tony and I had a chance to spend a few nights at my cousin, Daniel’s home.  The rest of the time, we spent it in classrooms with the rest of the youth, at St. Patrick’s primary school at Sutherland.

I have very mixed feelings about this whole project.  I had attended the WYD as a support person, rather than as a pilgrim, so I was not exactly in the pilgrim frame of mind.  Nevertheless, the events of Milgrove and WYD touched me in a special way.  It was quite amazing to see half a million people gathered together to attend mass celebrated by our spiritual leader, the Pope.  With that many youths gathered in one place, you would have expected chaos, rowdiness and nonsense; yet everyone was relatively well-behaved and a proper sense of reverence pervaded all the events.  Can you imagine half a million silent worshippers gathered at one place?  Quite incredible and moving.

The other experience I had was how things seemed to just fall in place, despite my concerns and worries over problems etc.  Don’t get me wrong; I did have to scramble and take action to solve the problems, but the results were always good.  It was as if the Spirit was guiding and taking control of all the things that had to be done.  Yes, you might say it’s coincidence, but so what?  For those who have faith, coincidences are planned by the Spirit, and when you have many coincidences in a row, you can’t help but feel the Spirit moving. 

Having said all the above, I don’t think I want the same role for any future World Youth Days.  My kids are looking forward to the next one in Madrid, but I hope that if I do attend in future, it will be as a pilgrim/tourist, without any responsibilities for any youths except my own kids!

Some photos can be found here:

http://blog.tuenproductions.com/photogallery/index.php?/category/318

So, now that I’m a citizen, do I feel any different?  It’s hard to say.  Definitely, there is a sense of relief, in that I am now not just a visitor or guest of Australia, but I’m a full member of the Australian family, and this land now belongs to me as much as it belongs to the next Australian, whatever his or her origins or colour might be.  That’s quite a thought, considering that the only sense of ownership I previously had was of a tiny island without any natural resources of its own and surrounded by hostile neighbours jealous of its apparent financial success.  In fact, even though I’ve been a citizen of Australia for less than a month, I already feel that I have much more influence and say in the affairs of Australia than I ever felt I had in Singapore.  Singapore belongs to the PAP and the Lee family, and everybody else will always be servants or tenants in their service, and our freedom is ultimately at their discretion.  There are no recognised human rights (it’s a fact that Singapore is not a party to the UN convention of human rights).  Whereas in Australia, I feel the equal, as a person, of even the prime minister, and I have no fear of criticising him or his policies.

Yes, when I sit down and think about it, I really do feel quite different now!

Ostensibly, the reason is that my old Palm Treo cannot take the SIM card from Three, which is the telco that most of my kids are using.  That means that if I sign up with Three as well, then my calls within the Three network are free (up till a certain limit).  Considering that mobile charges in Australia are ridiculously expensive (It’s cheaper, using the same telco, to call Singapore, than it is to call my kids’ mobiles right here in the same State), I thought that this would save me money in the long run.  But of course, I guess the true reason is that I just couldn’t resist this new toy.  Sigh.

This also marks my move away from the Palm platform to the Windows mobile platform.  Hardcore Palmies would consider that I’ve crossed over to the dark side; but hey, Palm Inc. themselves crossed over and created the Treo 500 and Treo 750 which are all Windows mobile based.  Go figure!

Time really flies.  It seems like only yesterday when I was in the Uni, and now, my kids are already in Uni.  If my own experience is anything to go by, the next few years will see them maturing quickly into adults.

Just please, don’t let me be a grandfather anytime soon!