Tranquil Weekend...

Here I am relaxing tranquilly at home -watching the Sunday AFL match between Melbourne and Sydney Swans. Started my day early for a beautiful morning walk in the neighborhood, I ended up with a cup of coffee and a cookie at McDonald Cafe. The coffee was alright with the foamy steamed milk. It was not as robust as the one that I had at Romas. Then, I started food shopping as part of my Sunday routine at Sunny bank Plaza;it might not be exciting for others. As for me, it's such relaxing. In the afternoon, I went to Borders at Gardens City Center to read some books and check out bargains and things there. While looking through a number of books in the Psychology and Self Help section, I came across an interesting book, which explains many different crucial points that we seem to get dragged along in our life in the simple world. One section in "Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff: simple ways to keep the little things from taking over your life" by Richard Carlson, he talks about being in the present. He says,
"Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date.
It isn't. In fact, on one has a guarantee that he or she will be here
tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have
any control over. When over attention is in the present moment, we push
fear from our minds."
I could not help but totally agreed with what he said. These days, people seem to get trapped in either the past or the future. I myself have been trying (very hard)to be in the present. It's only that I had such great past experiences in my 20s so far. One of my past experiences will come back to me again. New Zealand that is! I was invited to visit my host family of 11 years before my visit terminates. Celebrating the 28th birthday with my host dad will be something that last in my memory for a life time. Back to the present,(see, how our mind can easily be taken away from the present)once I am in the present, I am fully in control of myself, in happiness and in love. I do love myself and people around me even more . Life has so much to offer...Less is More. By that means, we less cling on any thing and we become more happy and satisfied to life...However, in teaching, More is Great-more practice, more materials, more knowledge! I still have lots of things to take care before I return home. Starting to write a research proposal is yet one of the things that I have to undertake. Getting started is the hardest thing indeed.

On Saturday, I woke up early to get the house chores done before I went to a football match among English Language institutes in Queensland. There were 12 teams competing with each other. Our GELI team was there with 4 women including myself giving them a cheer. They did very well; however, I did not stay until the end. Instead, I took a City Cat to South bank to take a little walk downtown. I stopped for a coffee at Borders. Then, I caught a bus home and hoped to go to bed early since I had a long Friday and did not go to bed until almost one o'clock.

I helped teach all day today and attended a meeting until almost 5 p.m. Then, I went to Thailand Consulate-General, Brisbane. Khun Bill, Consul General, and his wife (as well as their "F.B.I. dogs") were very welcoming and loving people. Then, I walked around South bank to get a quick bite before the Queensland Orchestra performance started. I was invited to the concern at QPAC (Queensland Performance and Arts Convention by Sara, one of the teachers at GELI. I could not help but was momentarily breathless of how real the performance was actually right in front of me. Being in Philly in the States for two years, I always hoped to go see something like this since there are in abundance of well-known musicians and great performances. But here I was listening to Boris Berman, a well-known pianist from Moscow. He played Brahms tonight. The first half, the music was bogus. Sara informed that he broke her husband's piano, who works at QPAC and provided free tickets to us, while rehearsing. Queensland Orchestra was conducted by Pietari Inkinen that night. He is a brilliant 29 year-old conductor from Finland. Inkinen is also an accomplished violinist and at the Cologne Music Academy with Zakhar Bron (well I absolutely have no idea who he and his teacher are...these names occurred to me for the same time in my life!!!). It was a pleasant and productive weekend again!

P.S. I also baked Apple Pie, without measuring cups, to my friend's Dad's birthday dinner party. It came out splendidly, or else I had got to blame the Vanilla ice-cream we had with it...hahaha!