Its been more than a month since I left Malaysia. Gosh, time flies. I have been pre occupied with work, trying to get a house, open bank accounts, buy a car, insuarance and all sorts of stuff that you need to do when you start life all over again in a new place. It can be very taxing, not to mention expensive.
People ask me if I miss Malaysia. The honest truth is that while I do miss my family a lot (10 days till they get here), I dont particularly miss Malaysia. Mostly because I am busy with trying to settle in. I am sure in time I will miss Malaysia more. I was feeling homesick the first week I was here, but now its pretty ok. Especially since I am in my own house now. Its just more settling being in your own lace, even if its an empty house.
I started work on Sep 1 and the officein Melboure is going through a lot of change. New manager for the location, new staff like me...etc. Peope ask me what I do, and I myself am not too sure about it. My immediate manager and the MD (who offered me the job in the first place) seem to have different ideas on how best I can contribute to the company, so I am still working that out. But I do know my primary role is to do with Major Account Management.
Work has been ok and I have enjoyed working with aussies. Most of them anyway. Melbournians especially take great pride in how diverse the city is culturally and how tolerant they are. Someone asked me last week if I encountered any racism, and the answer is no. I have not had any probelms so far and I thank God for it. My customers are more ineterested in my experience and work ethic than my ethnicity.
The only drawback about work is the long drive to and from work. Melbourne is a very spread out city and you just have to get used to driving around. But I am enjoying my car!
I also managed to get a nice place to live in. The neighbourhood, while not as pretty as other suburbs around, is pretty nice and my neighbours (mostly Greek) seem friendly as well. The place is close to train stations and shops, so its a nice spot. When we first thought of moving over, both Marge and I kept thinking how nice if we can live in this neighbourhood, and here we are. Its got an asian fruit store, a Korean grocer, lots of great Greek stores and cafes, and a fresh pasta shop that is great. And good bakeries as well.
I have spent most of my weekends shopping for household things like quilts, towels, electrical goods..etc. In terms of furniture, all I have is a dining set and a mattress. I also have a fridge and washing machine. Still do not have a TV. Hopefully that will change soon :) I was glad I managed to do something different the past 2 weekends to make it feel more like a weekend. This weekend I took a 5km walk by the beach with Richard and then went for breakfast. That was nice.
In terms of church, I have visited the Oakleigh Anglican church for 2 weeks now. I went for the traditional service last week where I was probabaly the only person below 60, and this week I went to the "contemporary" service. I will probabaly visit another church next week. I would like to find a church within my neighbourhood.
Thats just some updates from me for now. Hope all of you are doing well.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Displaced part 2
So, here I am in another place. I am currently living in a friends apartment while they are away. Moved out from my cousins place last week. Its nice to get a place all to myself, but its still only a temporary place., so still feel a bit unsettled.
But God is good, and I am learning to put into practice the discipline of submitting everything to God and then just trust Him with it.
I have been looking at rental houses the past 2 weeks. Have not seen anything really nice or approrpiate until last week when I saw a place that is very nice and it comes with 4 bedrooms. In the last 2 weeks before I left Malaysia, I sensed that maybe we should have a place where we can house guests. Maybe one of the things we can do is t open our home to people who want to come over for a stay/retreat. Therefore a house with an extra room would be best. When I saw this place, I thought this could be the one. But the rental market is very competitive. Demand is great. At the house inspection, there were a lot of people who came to see the place and all of them left with an application form. On top of it all, I do not have a rental history here which makes it harder for us. A few friends told me that I may need to offer up to 6 months rent in advance to secure the place and I was thinking of doing this (with a little help from my brother).
I went to bed that night praying about this and the next morning I woke up with this thought in mu head: God is my Father who provides and if this is the place he has for me, I will get it without the need to do anything extra.
So with this, I went ahead with my application. And much to my suprise and everyone elses, I got the place! This was my only application and a lot of peple have told me that I will need to put in lots of applications in order to secure a place.
I am thankful for this blessing. I was sharing with a friend over the weekend about how I hope to get a place asap so that I can have a bit of mental and emotional space to process what this move means for me. He agreed to pray with me that I will be able to get a place soon. God has answered that prayer. Thanks be to God.
But God is good, and I am learning to put into practice the discipline of submitting everything to God and then just trust Him with it.
I have been looking at rental houses the past 2 weeks. Have not seen anything really nice or approrpiate until last week when I saw a place that is very nice and it comes with 4 bedrooms. In the last 2 weeks before I left Malaysia, I sensed that maybe we should have a place where we can house guests. Maybe one of the things we can do is t open our home to people who want to come over for a stay/retreat. Therefore a house with an extra room would be best. When I saw this place, I thought this could be the one. But the rental market is very competitive. Demand is great. At the house inspection, there were a lot of people who came to see the place and all of them left with an application form. On top of it all, I do not have a rental history here which makes it harder for us. A few friends told me that I may need to offer up to 6 months rent in advance to secure the place and I was thinking of doing this (with a little help from my brother).
I went to bed that night praying about this and the next morning I woke up with this thought in mu head: God is my Father who provides and if this is the place he has for me, I will get it without the need to do anything extra.
So with this, I went ahead with my application. And much to my suprise and everyone elses, I got the place! This was my only application and a lot of peple have told me that I will need to put in lots of applications in order to secure a place.
I am thankful for this blessing. I was sharing with a friend over the weekend about how I hope to get a place asap so that I can have a bit of mental and emotional space to process what this move means for me. He agreed to pray with me that I will be able to get a place soon. God has answered that prayer. Thanks be to God.
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