Updates

i know, i know, it's been awhile..it's been almost a month i think since my last post so forgive me people for being slack :) Okay let me think what we did since then.. hmmm.. oh i know, my brother proposed to his Arizonian girlfriend and majority of the family decided to go to the wedding which will be held in AZ in July (i heard it's gonna be so hot!!!) hmm that would be interesting for me since i'm not used to dry heat:( i hope i wont die lol!, so Chad and I decided that since we're going to the wedding we might as well take 3 weeks holiday to see a little bit of US and catch up with our friends (mission friends etc..) we're so excited! what's even exciting is that we got our tickets cheap.. it's basically 1 ticket for 2 people awesome right?? hehehe.. so i guess that's the most exciting bit that we're looking forward to:) And oh the last couple weeks we have been sitting kids for 2 days and 2 nights.. two weeks ago we looked after Chad's sisters kids, consists of an 8 yr old, 6 yr old, 3 yr old and a 5 month old:) the 3 older girls stayed over for the night, it's interesting, fun and tiring!! absolutely:)but what's good about it is that we can return them to their parents after 2 days hehehe:) and last week end, we had 2 little girls stayed over all day Saturday/ Sat night and took them to church with us, they're 4 yr old and 3 yr old, they're not siblings, they are our friends kids:) they love staying at aunty Irene's place lol! but oh my they can be handfuls!:) but really it's a great learning experience for me and Chad:) we love it.. i think i've taken some photos of my sister inlaws kids..so i'll try to upload them here:)

Family camping - North Stradbroke Island

Last week, we went on a family camp for 3 days, the weather was fantastic, we we're a bit worried because the forecast was it was going to be rainy for 2 days out of 3 days we're at the camp. We enjoyed the beach, the walk, games etc! so here are few photos that i took!

Irene - Full pledged Australian citizen "I am, you are, we are Australian"

March 20, the same day we got back from Japan, I had to go pledge at Brisbane city hall to become an Aussie citizen along with 500 others, the ceremony was nice, lot's of family members and friends shared it with us! I really enjoyed it. Now that's all out of the way, I will now need to re-acquire my Filipino citizenship to become a dual citizen. Australia is a beautiful country/continent and i am so proud to be a part of it, not just saying this because i am now a citizen.. It really is a privilege to be a citizen of a free and a very multicultural country!!

Japan trip - March 2009

In November last year Chad and I bought plane tickets to Japan, as our 6 year anniversary treat, anyway it was cheap tickets:) and that's one reason why we bought those tickets, Japan's beautiful and expensive:) but we had heaps of fun! luckily we brought our own tourist guide:) (Heath - Chad's brother) who served his mission there, otherwise it would have been a little tough for me and Chad to figure things out. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, we caught up with our Japanese friends, sight see around Tokyo and went to Disneyland Tokyo, saw a few ancient temples in Kyoto and went to our friends sealing in the Tokyo temple.. and ate heaps of yummy Japanese food:)

a lot has happened since Chad's last blog

Well, we had our 6yrs anniversary in February, Chad and I went on a little getaway to the Sunshine Coast, where he took me Jet skiing for the very first time and i loved it a lot, in fact i nearly knock Chad off at the back seat, that's how much i love jet skiing hehehe, i went so fast (faster than chad yeah baby!!) that i forgot about him clinging behind me:) anyway here are some of the photos we took.

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.