happy Christmas!

It's Boxing Day and the sun is gorgeous and bright. We might go for a swim later.

Yesterday was a dreary, rainy Christmas day. I have already eaten way too much and the celebrations are far from over! Dane's family had a big roast dinner complete with potato bake, gravy, peas and rolls. They follow it up with dessert which is pretty much a separate meal on its own - Chrissy pudding, trifle, pavlova, custard and ice cream.

Pudding and pavlova!

We spent a lazy afternoon opening presents and playing pool, before packing our overnight bags and heading to my mum and dad's house. This is the first Christmas little Zara is aware of what's going on, and it was very special. She opened all her presents and 'helped' the rest of us open ours.

Zara opening presents

Mum said we'd have a small supper together after presents, but she wowed us all with an enormous meal - chilli crab, Singapore Char Kway Teow, and steamed buns. So delicious!!!

My mum's chilli crab :)

The plan is to eat more and laze around more until after New Year I think. We're having more family and friends over tomorrow for continued feasting. Hopefully it will remain sunny :)

This time of year is always very busy and we have been catching up with lots of family and friends. We spent a lovely day eating ham, turkey and salad with Dane's cousins (and adorable baby cousin) on Christmas Eve, and visited a great-aunt that evening for more ham, plus cheese and crackers (I wonder what the recommended dietary intake of ham is?). We have been caroling in the park and caroling at church; and shopping, shopping, shopping; we hosted two pool parties, and gone to cocktail parties, birthday parties, even a wedding!

Congrats Lydia and Owen!

It's good to be sleeping in and having afternoon naps and just go at a slower pace this week. I'm also looking forward to some bargain hunting after the public holidays! I hope you are having a very blessed Christmas too - I will leave you with this beautiful view from a rooftop in the Rocks:

Merry Christmas and God bless!

October long weekend!

How time flies when you’re having fun! It’s hard to believe the October long weekend is over, and now everyone is looking forward to Melbourne Cup. I think this will be a long post because I’ve had a few really wonderful weekends to tell you about.

One weekend a year, the historic trust that administers Camden Park House invites the public to the mansion for an Open Day. It’s a beautiful, enormous old home with servant quarters and a guard house and everything. The Trust usually picks a spring weekend, when the wisteria that covers the back of the house is blooming.

Wisteria at Camden Park House

My favourite part of the property is the grounds – acres of landscaped gardens, lawn after lawn, an orchard with dozens of varieties of apples and pears (some the only remaining plant of its species), swimming pool and tennis court and the grounds went on and on. The footpaths were all lined with these vibrant clivia plants.

Clivia flowers at Camden Park House

You can do a tour of the house and see the famous wood collection (seriously, it’s a collection of different kinds of wood) and they really make a day of it with a sausage sizzle, Devonshire tea and little market stalls. To end the day, we had tea and scones on the lawn.

Scones on the lawn!

A fortnight ago, my sister celebrated her 30th birthday party by hosting a weekend festival which involved a lot of eating. She started with a lunch of wonton noodles, roast duck and pork; the next morning we had a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, mushrooms, onions, toast and fruit; then we all drove down to the Southern Highlands for lunch.

Her husband had organised a table at a very gorgeous restaurant at the Bendooley Estate. It’s attached to a winery and is a bit café, a bit bookstore, ALL class. The food was divine – I ordered their shellfish chowder to start and was very impressed. I’d definitely go back again – I want to try their enormous beef burger and their giant grilled prawns.

Bendooley Estate cafe + bookstore

Last weekend, I invited my family over to celebrate my birthday a little early. I was very blessed to have the sunniest Saturday for entertaining! We had an afternoon tea of prosciutto, salami, olives, cheese and bread and then went for a quick dip in the pool. The water was pretty chilly!

I wanted to show my Dad the walking trail through the bush at the back of our place. As we started walking away, my toddler niece Zara (who was in the process of getting changed after her swim) thought we were leaving her behind and came running after us stark naked. She wouldn't stay put so we wrapped her in a towel and carried her with us.

That evening, we dined at Trattoria La Vinga, an Italian restaurant and winery in Camden. Such a great place and so perfect for a special occasion! If you’re looking for somewhere yummy and a bit fancy in this area, definitely consider Trattoria La Vinga.

Spaghetti marinara at Trattoria La Vigna

Happy birthday to me!

On my actual birthday, the girls at work took me out for Japanese - at one of my favourite places, Musashi at Capitol Square. The restaurant has changed hands since the last time I was there, but the meals are still really delicious and very affordable. I had their miso roast duck breast and noodles:

Miso roast duck breast and noodles at Musashi

The girls followed that up with a selection of ice cream cakes from Messina! So I had a really great birthday and a really great few weekends before that! There are some pretty exciting things on the horizon too - I'll save those for next time ;)

birthdays, weddings, old friends!

Yesterday we celebrated Zara's second birthday. In case you're not familiar with Zara, she is the most wonderful, intelligent, capable child and my only niece (and the only grandchild on both sides). As you can imagine, she is very, very loved. I spoke to her on the phone this week and she has now mastered the "K thx byeee" in a very adorable way.

Happy Birthday to Zara!

The sun showed up in a big way for her party, held at Sir Joseph Banks park, Botany. This is a great spot for little ones with heaps of play equipment. There was even an interestingly-designed see-saw which Dane enjoyed rocketing me skywards on. We wanted to go on the donut swing set too but had to give way to the younger folks :)

We had to dash from the party to be in time for the wedding of the lovely Mr & Mrs Collins, who tied the knot at All Saints North Parramatta. She wore the most sparkly dress I've ever seen on a real bride and he got hitched in a very fetching white suit. Here's a picture of the happy couple:

Mr and Mrs Collins!

I met Mrs Collins at my old church, and there were a few old church friends at the ceremony I got to catch up with. It reminded my how much I enjoyed their company, and I've made a mental note to have a meal together soon. Is there anything better than catching up with old friends?

Speaking of old friends, dinner last Saturday went really well. As I mentioned last week, we dined at Diethnes on Pitt St (close to World Square). The entrance to the restaurant is a door and stairs on street level, and the restaurant is actually in a basement. It's got a bit of a cheesy Greek decor and as the night went on the service got slower, but the food was excellent. We opted for the set banquet which included dolmades, salt + pepper squid, roast lamb, fried eggplant, moussaka, salad and bread and dips. I had never tried moussaka before and I am totally converted! It was delicious - better than lasagna! Will definitely order it again.

I attended a conference for work this week, called Disrupt Sydney - all about how technology is changing big business. The keynote was the founder of Yammer, a social network service for enterprises. He had a beard but shaved his head - he even had reverse sideburns. He spoke about how the distinction between 'knowledge workers' (people who make decisions) and 'non-knowledge workers' (plebs) needs to disappear. He said it's obvious that front-line staff often have the most practical knowledge about their customers, all while management spend their time commissioning longitudinal market research on questions their staff could answer for them in five minutes. He mentioned how management often tell workers to do things the workers themselves know will fail, but they shrug their shoulders and do it anyway because "that's what the boss says". Or they nod and smile but turn around and do what they know will work.

It made me feel grateful that I work for a small company without many layers of management, where I am encouraged to think for myself. I don't feel like I am doing futile things simply because my boss tells me to. I can imagine how frustrated and rage-y I would get in an environment like that, and am now aware of what a great blessing I have in my workplace.

After such a mammoth Saturday, I only made it partway through Kevin Rudd's concession speech and still have not heard Abbott's acceptance. We took it pretty easy today but I've got a big week ahead, including a day trip to Melbourne! Hopefully my phone will be fixed soon!

Life hiccups and weekend away

I've only just realised how slack I've been with posting recently, and I'm very sorry! I've been experiencing some life hiccups which took up all my energy:
- Our hot water system stopped working
- I had to go without my smartphone while it was getting repaired
- I got sick
- Dane got sick

Because of the aforementioned smartphone problem I don't have many photos to show you :( but I still want to tell you about our church Weekend Away. We headed down the south coast to a campsite close to Nowra, where there was zero mobile reception. The weather forecasted a -2 degree night but we were lucky to have gorgeous, sunny days. I had a really great time. We played a game of poker using coffee beans as chips, we played a very epic frisbee game, and tried to play volleyball while connected to another person. I wish someone got photos of that, because it looked hilarious. We also lit a campfire on the windiest night and were continually running away from the sparks being blown about. The best part about the weekend away was just hanging out with other people from church, staying up late, becoming closer friends.

I have great plans for the next few weekends, starting with dinner in the city with a bestie who's recently moved back to Sydney after living in Melbourne since year 11. We'll be trying out Diethnes, a Greek restaurant on Pitt St. My sister and I have also planned breakfast for my Dad this Father's Day Sunday - we decided to cook breakfast after going through menus from cafes in our area and realising breakfast is a very overpriced meal! How much does it really cost to fry an egg??

New Zealand!

So much to tell! We spent a week in New Zealand (pronounced Nu Zuhland if you're a local) and this post is a long one because I want to tell you all about it!

Our plane to Christchurch was delayed by around 90 minutes, which meant we landed much later than planned. We got our hire car just as the sun was setting and then embarked on an epic, epic drive to Queenstown in the dark. It was intense. That drive led me to believe no one lives in New Zealand - all we could see was a narrow strip of grass (or snow!) on the shoulders of the road and empty blackness beyond. Driving through the mountain passes was especially scary - the temperature would drop, an eerie chill filled the car, and the radio would turn to static as we wound through the twisty highway. You can guess how continually I prayed during that 6 hour journey!

We pulled into our hotel in Queenstown at around 11pm, a bit shaky but very relieved. We hadn't stopped for dinner and apart from a muesli bar we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. We went straight down to the hotel bar after dumping our bags - Dane had hot chips and I had (average) tacos, then went to bed very exhausted!

The next morning I really enjoyed a large, hot breakfast!

Corn fritters with poached eggs, bacon and spinach at Post Office Cafe

We walked around Queenstown, then drove over to Arrowtown, which has lots of history in gold panning and now has knick-knack shops and heaps of cafes. I bought a packet of sour coke bottles and one of choc-coated honeycomb. They gave us a free sample of peanut butter chocolate fudge.

on the chairlift

The next day, we hit the ski slopes! This was my very first time skiing, and I was pretty nervous about it. I took a beginners class where they taught you how to stop. Very valuable knowledge!

That afternoon I went up on the chairlift and tried some of the easy slopes. I wasn't very good at it but I still had a lot of fun. My stack rate was about one every two goes. Dane went adventuring on the more advanced slopes. One time, I met him at the bottom of the mountain and his forehead was muddy. He must have stacked it pretty hard that time :)

We spent the next few days recovering. Our legs and knees were pretty shot. In Queenstown, there's a cable car that takes you to the top of Bob's Peak, where we had mulled wine and hot chocolate.

View from the cable car

One of our trip highlights was going on a 4-wheel-drive Lord of the Rings tour! Yes, I am a bit of a LOTR nerd and it was so exhilarating to recognise the places where the movie scenes were filmed. Our first stop was the garden in Ithilien where Frodo and Sam see Oliphants. Our tour guide had an iPad so we could watch the movie clip right on the spot it was filmed. Next, we saw the breathtaking lake where the Pillars of the Kings was filmed. It was absolutely freezing and windy on this lookout!

"The great river"

Our guide had a very dry, understated humour. When we got to the rocky, muddy riverbed that Isengard was CG-d onto, he stopped the car saying, "This is a really lovely place for lunch! And it's such a mild day." So we stood around munching on sandwiches and shivering. Can you imagine having a picnic lunch on the grounds at Isengard? He also told us that the road ended a little way ahead, even though we hadn't seen a road for kilometres!

My favourite location was a beech forest near Glenorchy, where they filmed the departure of Boromir. It just sings of Middle Earth. We wanted to stand there all day and drink it in.

Middle Earth!

While driving around the countryside we saw some places that looked like they could be straight out of Hobbiton!

Bag End could be in this photo somewhere!

Our drive back up to Christchurch was much better than our way down. We drove through national parkland and saw large, solitary birds of prey wheeling overhead. There were "Strong Wind" warning signs along the highway - Dane decided he would adopt that as his American Indian name (giggle).

One of the most memorable nights of our adventure (and probably my life) was the night we stopped at Mount Cook. It had drizzled through the afternoon, but as soon as we reached our little stand-alone cabin, it started hailing! Watching the news report that night, we found out the roads out of Queenstown had shut behind us because of a landslide. We were so, so thankful to God that we got through early. The weather report had severe gale warnings for the night. On top of all that, Dane started feeling a bit off-colour, was shaky and hot, and had me very worried.

We went to sleep early. It was probably one of the scariest nights of my life. Our little cabin shook with loud BOOMing noises at every gust of wind, and we could hear rain and hail and snow pelting down outside all night long. I was convinced that in the morning we would find the roads a metre deep in snow.

Our fears were unfounded! In the morning the storm had blown itself out and there was only a fine powder of snow on the road, like icing sugar. We went over to the main homestead for a buffet breakfast. They have an enormous fireplace and keep a jar of marshmallows and skewers on the mantlepiece for you to help yourself.

Fireplace with DIY marshmallow skewers

After that, it was go, go, go to Christchurch. You will remember that a few years ago, Christchurch was ruined by earthquakes. It was very sobering to drive into the city and see how bad the damage still is. On every street, buildings are being held up with scaffolding, windows are taped over or boarded up, there are empty blocks covered in rubble - it is amazing how complete the destruction still is.

After walking past so many cracked, desolate buildings we eventually stumbled upon a lively mall with food stalls, cafes, shops, and banks all made out of shipping containers! It was very cool to find such an oasis in the middle of a very grim city.

And of course I won't leave off this post without a run-down of my favourite meals! Here they are:

• Sudado De Pescado (Peruvian fish stew) at Fishbone 
  

•  Share plate of ribs, chicken wings, prawns and salt + pepper squid at English-inspired pub, 1876
  

•  Banana split at Patagonia Chocolates 
  
   
• Pork belly and scallop salad at Pier19 (the lovely folk at Pier19 also comped our drinks as a sweetener to get us into the restaurant)
  

  

  This photo doesn't do it justice - it was my favourite meal in NZ!

My week at the Hilton!

I can hardly believe that it's been a full week since I checked out of the Hilton Sydney last Friday.

my room at the Hilton, Sydney

I was staying there for a work conference - a really big event that we had been working towards since November last year! From past year's experience, I knew that it was going to be the most stressful week of my year. The conference comprises early breakfast events, full days of conference sessions, then cocktails and dinners and goes over three days.

During the conference some of my colleagues stayed up hours past midnight getting things ready for the next day. I threw it in earlier than that but it's still an exhausting week.

PRAISE GOD that it all went well! Late on Monday night, after having a very indulgent KFC hot and spicy dinner with the girls, I posted a prayer request on my biblestudy FB page - asking prayer for levelheadedness during the next hectic days. God answered those prayers in spades. There was no yelling, or tears, just a pleasant level of adrenaline keeping me going. I felt I had a clear perspective during the rush and bustle of the conference and wasn't swept away emotionally.

As a major plus, I can't think of anything that went wrong! The conference days went smooth as a dream. There were lots of high fives and happy smiles when we packed down.

Another really bizarre plus is that at the Hilton, there are tv screens in the shower! I had lots of fun washing my hair while watching Masterchef at the same time.

There was a tv screen in the shower!

On one of the nights, I got to have dinner with the keynote speakers at Glass Brasserie (which is hatted!). They served a very memorable creme brulee - memorable because it was ENORMOUS! The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was almost comically large - the size of a dinner plate!

Creme Brulee at Glass

Another night, my beautiful niece came to visit with her mum and dad. It is so grounding to have your family come and see you while you're in the middle of an important work event. When you're seeing your colleagues from dawn to dusk every day, sharing rooms, and for hours and hours talking about work, work, work; having a very cute 2 year old walk into all that completely brings you back to earth.

We ordered hot chocolates and little one got a baby-chino. I loved showing her off to my colleagues. She can count to five in Indonesian! There has never been a child more clever! She is completely absorbing. Just what I needed to take my mind off work for a few hours.

And now I am looking forward to another very big distraction from work! Next week Dane and I are going to New Zealand!! I am going to learn how to ski and go on a Lord of the Rings tour! Dane is going to bungee jump! I can't wait - counting down the sleeps!

Day trip to Bowral!

Last Saturday, Dane and I went driving south to Bowral in New South Wales' Southern Highlands. I hadn't ever been before, but Dane promised me I would like it.

I said to him, "But what's at Bowral? What are we going to do?"
And he said, "Don't worry, you'll like it."

Bowral is only a forty-five minute drive from where we live, an ideal distance for a day trip. We left late in the morning, and pulled into the main drag of Bowral just before midday. It's a charming regional town, with really crispy air and tall, tall poplars along the highway.

We passed a few antique-y, gift shops on our way to grab coffees. Dane turned to me and said, "there are heaps of those stores here... Babe, we're going picking!"

Dane is addicted to those red-neck American shows about picking, pawning, taxidermy, auctions, all of that. He can watch hour after hour of discovering a rare piece of 'Americana' and then having it restored, valued, and auctioned. He loves that stuff.

I began to feel as though I had been brought to Bowral under false pretences.

But actually it was a really fun day. Our first stop was at the famous Gumnut Patisserie! It's a cosy shopfront crammed with pastries and cakes. The place was absolutely hopping as more and more people squished in front of the counter, and while I was there a line actually formed out the door.

Pastries everywhere!

There's no room to sit down  inside the cafe, but they have tables just outside in the mall. Dane and I got a table, but it was so busy that another couple - an older lady and man - asked if they could sit with us. We got to chatting. They had just been holidaying further south, and were on their way home up on the central coast. They said they always stopped in Bowral on the journey - bargains to be found at the charity shops, as some of the Bowral locals are well off and their hand-me-downs are usually very good!

One of the highlights of our day trip was the bookstores. There were bookstores that you just don't see around any more. At Macarthur Square (my local shopping centre) there is a bookstore where nearly one whole wall is dedicated to the 'Paranormal' genre. I mean, is that really a genre?? And WHY does it take up so much realestate in the store??

Anyway, in this Bowral bookstore there was only a tiny shelf with the heading 'Paranormal', and everything else was just regular normal. We spent quite a bit of time wandering the shelves. There was book with a painting of a different species of trout on every page. There was another one with pictures of the world's most famous golf courses. And before we left the store, I bought a copy of Robinson Crusoe - haven't started it yet.

There was also a delightful children's store, selling gorgeous little outfits and playthings. They had a section of gumboots and ballet flats and I came across a really cute pair of navy and fuchsia shoes. Sometimes I am lucky enough to fit into kids sized shoes, and this was one of those times!

Ballet flats by Walnut

After we had checked out a few other kooky places - an antique store, a bookstore selling rare and old books, one place selling hat boxes - we went into a modern homewares shop. Full of colour! Lots of interesting, really neat things. Walking past their Le Crusset section, our attention was caught by a very sweet looking pie bird - free when you buy a pie dish! The pie dishes looked beautiful and were on sale (30% off) so I took them both home.

And here is the chicken and veg pie I made in it:

Best dinner for a cold night! My chicken and veg pie.

Fitness class = pain

Last week, I went back to fitness training after about three months off. I do an outdoor bootcamp at Harmony Park, and have been pretty regular since I signed up with my work mates about three years ago. This training is more or less the only exercise I do, and so when I had to miss the last block because of travelling for work, my fitness went rreeaally downhill.

Most mornings, I was struggling to get up the stairs at the train station.

On this particular evening, my first week back at bootcamp, only one other gent showed up. This is bad, because it means our lovely trainer Pete Mamo can watch you like a hawk and make sure you’re doing it all properly = pain.

Two days later, I could not lift a cup of water to my mouth - my arms were THAT sore.

What really surprised me was trying to do bicep curls with a resistance band - an exercise that has never been difficult for me before. The idea is you stand in the middle of a stretchy rope and hold the ends. I got a few out before my arms started slowing down. The next round, Pete said “Just bend your knees a little” - this gave the rope a bit more slack theoretically making it easier. Nup. It still took me about ten minutes (yes, exaggerating) to get out those five reps or whatever it was.

On the next round, Pete said “just put one foot on the band this time.” HA! HA! HA! HA!

In this round, my arms refused to move at all. Particularly my left arm. I clearly remember looking at it, with my brain going “go! go! go!” and it just did not move.

That was the weirdest. I have never actually experienced not being in control of my limbs before. I also realised for the first time how literal the phrase 'stinging sweat' could be. Before last week, I just assumed it was a metaphorical kind of phrase.

Anyway, some great things are being planned for this long weekend, including a day trip to the Southern Highlands! Pray it doesn't rain!

Masterclass with Kate Bracks

Kate Bracks (who won Masterchef a few years ago) ran a little Masterclass at my church this weekend! My family is right into all that Masterchef hype and the 'celebrity chef' stuff. A missed episode of My Kitchen Rules is like a tragedy to us. There are a quite few photos on my Mum and sister's facebook walls of them posing with ex-contestants or judges at cookbook promos and the like.

Signed recipe card from Manu Fiedel

A few weeks ago, Mum met Manu from My Kitchen Rules at Peters of Kensington (a homewares store). She took a photo and came away with autographed recipe cards for each of us. The recipe was for a slow-cooked lamb shoulder done with white wine. I had to swap shoulder for shanks, but the result was absolutely delicious! Definitely a winner.

Braised lamb shanks

I myself have been known to take paparazzi photos of celeb chef's when I've spotted them - - here is a photo of the side of Manu's head:

Spotted! Manu at Porteno, Surry Hills

Anyway, as you can guess, I was pretty excited about Kate Bracks and invited my mum and sister to come along.

She was really great. And so normal! Before the cooking demo started, she took time to chat to a few people sitting close to the stage (we of course took the front row seats), and asked us about what kind of foods we cooked. She was so lovely and easy to talk to.

Mum, Kate Bracks, and me!

Kate showed us how to make a Vincotto glazed chicken with rocket salad, and 'boozy' oranges with honeycomb and mascarpone cream. She was so natural throughout the whole demo and her tips were given in a really casual, chatty way. It was such a pleasure to watch Kate cook.

The best part was that she took some time out to talk about her experience on Masterchef, and then went on to tackle some of life's biggest questions - why am I here? how can I have a fulfilled life? It all came straight out of her personal experiences and I was so impressed and encouraged by the way she fearlessly shared her beliefs.

Kate explained how it was God who kept her so centred during the craziness of Masterchef, when she was only allowed to see her family for a few hours every week, and when things got stressful and emotional. She said that while we all know what it feels like to crave yummy foods (hot chips anyone?!) she's found satisfaction for her soul's cravings: true rest, security for the future, and unconditional love. All this comes, she said, through her relationship with God.

So! Some tips I jotted down:

• Dress the bottom of the salad bowl rather than pour dressing over the top. You then mix the dressing through with your fingers. This stops the leaves 'drowning' under the dressing.
• Flip your meat every minute or so for even cooking. You don't have to stick to the 'flip once only' myth!
• Learn to feel how 'done' your meat is by touching it. Squishier means rarer; firmer means more done.

And one more I picked up from watching Kate:

• Be brave about sharing how God is in your life!

It was such a fun and inspiring morning and I am def a Kate Bracks fan!

Lunches and locked out!

Last week, all the girls at work went out for lunch at Reuben Hills on Albion Street. It's walking distance from our Surry Hills office, and it's a pretty trendy, young fun cafe. It's the kind of place with wooden crates along the footpath for you to sit on and they have blankets on hand for when it's cold.

It was half meeting / half eating. I ordered the "not Reuben sandwich" - corned beef with coleslaw and pickles on sourdough - and a salted caramel milkshake. The others girls tried a chilli chocolate milkshake but I wasn't game. 

Walking back to the office, we managed to get to our gate before realising everyone had forgotten their key! So followed an hour of sitting on our doorstep while the locksmith went to work. We all figured he'd only take a minute or two and viola! We would be in! But no. He ended up having to pull the door apart and destroy the cylinder where the key goes. At lease we know our office is secure!

Sitting around waiting to get back into the office

Over the last few weeks, I have been lucky to have 'standing' lunch dates with a couple of beautiful girlfriends. I can't tell you how good it feels to have a regular catch up with your favourite people in the middle of your work day! It just takes you out of the grind for an hour. I always feel recharged afterwards

As its been terribly dreary and wet lately, noodle soup has been my lunch of choice:

Beef Pho from Naughty Chef, Surry Hills

Seafood Pho from Taste, Surry Hills

Speaking of soup, the wet weather has been making me crave Bak Kut Teh, a soupy, herby dish made with pork and eggs. No one makes it like my mother. So I sent a text (via group messaging) to my family saying "Hi Mum, yes we can come over for Bak Kut Teh!"

My sisters jumped on the bandwagon straight away - "Yes we can come too, this Saturday night" and so my poor mother has had her arm twisted into cooking dinner for us all this weekend :).

EQUIP'13

Yesterday I went to EQUIP'13, a Christian women's conference held annually at Darling Harbour. I haven't been to a women's conference before, and don't usually go to many women's events at my church. I feel they aren't really for me. However, this particular conference hooked me with their conference theme, 'Women who met Jesus'.

For some reason, this theme really piqued my interest. I found a friend who encouraged me to go and said she would come with me.

So, here we are with over 2,000 other ladies:

EQUIP'13. Women.

The first talk, looking at Jesus' mother Mary, was the best of the day. I have never heard a good sermon preached on Mary - actually I have never heard any sermon on Mary. And yet there is so much to be learned about God through her eyes!

The way that Mary understood how spiritual prophecies would be physically fulfilled in her, and how that all seemed so natural to her was something I really learned from. It was also eye opening to discover that Mary had to be saved through faith in Jesus just like everyone else.

We also heard about a woman who showed Jesus OTT love by pouring expensive perfume over his feet, and using her hair to clean them. Another woman reached out to touch Jesus' cloak and was healed from terrible illness. I got a lot out of these stories - about Jesus' kindness to outcasts, and about how it's okay to show extravagant gestures of love, even if it makes others around you feel uncomfortable. And how the gesture itself isn't the important part - touching the hem of Jesus' cloak - but their love inside and trust in Jesus.

EQUIP had an all-ladies band, even a chick drummer:

Women rocking.

and I must give an honourable mention to the ladies who did the Bible readings. They can read! These women really made the words jump off the page:

Women reading.

But the highlight of the day was definitely an item by this very talented woman:

Women singing

She sang a hymn in a classical style (opera?) and blew everyone away! I was absolutely riveted by her powerful voice, her performance, and her sparkly dress. I felt so blessed by her song and let me just say, she was seriously singing for Jesus. I'm very thankful I got to hear her.

We capped off a great morning with an equally great lunch. My friend and I headed to the other side of the harbour, cockle bay wharf, where one of my fav restaurants, Adria Rybar and Grill were doing $16 lunch specials. I reckon that's an excellent deal, especially considering the lovely service and harbour views. We both ordered this very hearty chicken caesar salad (complete with poached egg and anchovies!):