The Match That Almost Stopped Irene's Heart

well if you don't already know by now Irene is obsessed with Roger Federer or Fedex as she likes to call him by his nickname. anyways as you might know, he is currently playing in the Australian open in Melbourne and was playing his fourth round match today against Tomas Berdych from Czech just after church. because of Irene's obsession we decided to watch this match expecting Federer to blast past his opponent easily and get through to the next round. well that didn't happen at all, he started the game poorly and made alot or errors and lost the first 2 sets and looked like he would lose and get kicked out of the tournament. usually on sundays irene is reverent and quiet as a mouse, mellow and relaxed but today however she was so tense and uptight from watching her fave player get beat that she was screaming out loud through nearly every point and sreaming "C'MON!!". I threatened her at one point that if she didnt quiet down i would have to give her a time out and put her in the naughty corner :) to which she gave me a (ARE YOU KIDDING ME BUDDY LOOK). anyways after i explained to her that sunday wasnt over yet:) she settled down a little, but i think it was mainly due to the fact that roger Federer won the 3rd set and looked like he could come back. well as a true champion does, the Fedex came back to win the match in 5 sets which made irene one happy tennis loving filipino:) so in conclusion to my story while i am grateful that i have a wife that shares a love of sports as i do, i sometimes pretend that im not with her when we go to live events as she get right into it like those crazy people that paint themselves and shout out when nobody else does :) (embarrassing at times but also funny to watch)

Follow up on my annoying passport renewal

Twenty20 Cricket match Australia vs. South Africa

The Australian team (Wearing Yellow)

South Africans are in Green

The Picture on the left was Matthew Hayden, he just retired, he's one of my favourite batsman, he's one of the best of all time! The picture on the right is taken while the match is in progress.


Last night was awesome! we went to see the match (cricket) Australia VS South Africa, We won by 6 wickets and an over to spare (for those of you that doesn't know cricket, you might not be able to understand the Lingo) but basically, there's 10 wickets in a team ( a wicket represents a player) so when a batsman is out then that's a wicket lost for the team and in cricket there's 6 balls in an over, 1 bowler bowls 6 balls and then change the bowler and he will bowl 6 balls for his turn they keep doing this until they get someone out and a batsman can be out in different ways, I guess its much easier to understand when youre actually watching the game, anyway i don't really want to bore you with cricket stuff..so here are some pictures we took from the match!

Update for my passport app

If you read my last blog, this is the continuation, anyhow, since i didn't hear from the Philippines embassy yesterday after I waited all day long, I decided to give them a call early in the morning today to see if they've receive my email, surprise surprise, they have but didn't even bother to reply or call me back as requested (pretty slack huh?). Anyway they put me through to the Attorney General to have a chat, to make the story short, he apologized for the delay and also promised me that He will coordinate with the Brisbane office to put my appearance schedule sometimes this month so that they can send it back to the Philippines for a passport production and if my passport still doesn't arrive in time for my trip to Japan, He promised that they'll extend my last passport so that i can still go on my trip. ( I didn't know that they can do that, but apparent they will, so fingers crossed). After that conversation i felt a bit relaxed but i wont be at ease until i hear from them again within this week for another schedule for me to make the appearance, so i will keep you posted.

The Call that ruined my day

My Philippines Passport has expired May 2008, I didnt renew it straight away because i thought i should just wait until i get my Australian citizenship then apply for a dual citizenship and that's when i should be renewing my Philippine passport so i can save some money, anyway I decided i should just go renew it anyway, last week was when i lodged my australian citizenship application and got approved December 1 last year, but until i pledge my oath (do the ceremony) i wont be australian citizen therefore cant apply for an Australian passport, the ceremony takes place within 6 months so dont have any clue when that will be. Anyway i sent my passport renewal application to the Consulate General of the Philippines here in Australia on the 27th of November 2008 (well before the holiday season), I sent via Expressed post and registered the mail too, I have been waiting since then for them to call me back for an appearance so i can sign and thumb mark, and finally yesterday i got call from embassy here in Brisbane, the lady on the phone told me that the first date that i can go for an appearance is on the 24th of Feb 2009, but see that is an acceptable because that means i wont get my passport before i go to Japan on the 12th of March because after my appearance they have to send my application to the Philippines for a passport production, which means I'm screwed..i was even angrier because the lady on the phone told me that there's no one to act on behalf of the consulate general whose absent, which i know for a fact that its a total lie, because if the in charge goes away, there's always, always! someone to act on his behalf, anyway to make the long story short, I called the office in Canberra (the general consulate's office) and spoke to another Lady and told her my concern, she then told me i have to write to an of their officer to see what can he do so that i can get my passport dont before my trip to Japan, so i wrote him an email straight away and now just waiting for his reply. I hope that he can expedite the process, after all i've done my part and they didnt do theirs. I will let you know the outcome.

Brisbane International - Australian Open Series

Since we're jobless still and we have so much free time on hour hands, we decided to go to a tennis match, i've never been to a live tennis match before, so my super nice husband bought a ticket for us, I love it! i saw some top seeded player and good tennis matches, I'm a sports fanatic, i love watching tennis, unfortunately MY Roger Federer didnt come to Brisbane:( he's playing in the Kooyong Classic leading up to the Australian Grand Slam in Melbourne instead. I was a little disappointed because Djokovich lost in the first round as well as Marcos Bagdhadis so didnt get to see them live, but Ana Ivanovich made it to QF which is good and then there was Fernancdo Verdasco, Soderling, Gasquet, Tsonga, Azarenka, Marion Bartoli, Stepanek, Mathieu, Amelie Muareso etc, so overall we still saw some good players and had fun!! These photos were Taken in the Pat Rafter Arena, centre court.

Brisbane International - Australian Open series

Treat trip to the WB Movieworld with some of the Primary kids

As a reward to the our kids in primary who were able to passed off their 13 Articles of Faith, a few scripture masteries, we took them to one of the Theme parks in the Gold Coast, the children were very excited, we were very impressed on how they all behaved that day. We're grateful to their parents for trusting us with their kids. We had a blast, the girls were a bit scared of some rides, Lina (the girl in yellow shirt) was so scared, she had her eyes closed most of the time and screaming at the same time, but she went on 2 more rides after that (brave Lina lol:) We made her go on the rides though..(meanie us hehehe). Overall it was a fun day and Chad and I crashed in our Lounge room, we didnt even make it to our bedroom that's how tired we were.

Welcoming 2009

We had a very simple New Year's eve celebration, we went and saw the Curious case of Benjamin Button along with my father in law ( we all thought the movie was nice except for the ending). After that we proceed to see the early fireworks (for the kids) then went home and just watch the rest on TV as we cant wait for the big fireworks (12 midnight) we're not party people, quite boring reallybut it was nice in a way because we had time to contemplate. We're thankful for all the blessings we received and trials we've been through because they made us more stronger and learned special and important things. And we hope that we'll be deserving people to receive whatever God in store for us this year. We wish you all the same. We love you all!!