Updates to Kins in Malaysia

How have you been? I trust this email will find you still in God’s
good care and hope you are well.

We received an email recently asking about a lack of updates on our
website (http://www.alphalink.com.au/~ianteh). We have not updated it
largely because we have not taken any photographs for a long time now.
Thian Hwa ("Ian") doesn’t mind updating with text only but he agrees
with Chin Hong ("Theresa") and Elysia that it is less interesting. Ian
confesses to keeping a blog (http://malaysiaboleh.blogspot.com) and
updates it more regularly but like all tiring blogs, this one is a
musing about nothing. It’s like singing in the showers. (Even so, this
email is going onto that blog…)

Anyway, things are drifting along for us here in Melbourne. The
weather is changing slowly but surely. We often feel, in the evening,
that the temperature falls very quickly and have begun turning on the
central heating (very old looking Vulcan Heating apparatus) in the
mornings. Ian has also substantially reduced his running, as it is
both cold and dark. If he does go out, it is between 6.15 and 6.30 and
only comes back between 7.15 and 7.30. Sunrise is now around 7.15. So
if he does go out, he makes almost the whole run in the dark. When
there is fog, it gets even more cumbersome. We dropped by a gym
(Fitness First) last weekend to check things out but they don’t seem
too friendly, so we have not followed up. Anyway, he still runs 2,
sometimes 3 times a week and does some other lighter forms of exercise
at other times, so I guess he is trying. Theresa is still working in
the city (Myers) and commutes daily on the train. From her office, it
is a quick hop on the tram to Queen Victoria Market so she sometimes
<!– D(["mb","buys family groceries there. The fish there is particularly good, and
she enjoys fish, so that has been good. Elysia is enjoying her school,
and is so far the only one in the family not to have complained about
the cold. We have been told this year’s autumn in Melbourne has been
unseasonably warm, and have been accused of bringing part of the
Malaysian weather with us to Melbourne. We just look at this as God’s
way of helping us ease in more gently! This morning we woke up to a 6
degree temperature and by the time Ian left home for work
(http://www.sharrockpitman.com.au) at 8.30, it was still only 7
degrees. In the evening however, we come home around 6pm, to a 15
degree temperature. We think this drops quickly later at night as
after dinner, we often feel cold. We have also taken to putting the
Vulcan to work for about half hour before we go to bed at night, which
is earlier now – around 9.30-10pm.

See – like all good Melburnians, we have begun learning how to ramble
on about the weather. We have yet to acquire skills to manage the
other favourite topics of conversations, i. e., Aussie Rules Football
(also topsy turvy now) and petrol prices (thankfully lower than before
– AUD0.95 per litre now). I guess in time we will also acquire these
skills.

We have settled into a routine which is bland, by any account. We look
forward to evenings and weekends, when the family can be together.
Dinner time is often fun, with chats about the day’s events. Theresa
and Ian alternately do the cooking, depending on who gets home first.
Lately Elysia has been doing the cleaning up after dinner, and usually
by around 7.30, everything’s finished. We then either watch tv or surf
the internet. We attend the prayer meeting on Wednesday nights and
have a bit of a prayer session ourselves on Tuesday nights. Often,
weekend involves some visits to an uncle’s or auntie’s house. Theresa
“,1] ); //–> buys family groceries there. The fish there is particularly good, and
she enjoys fish, so that has been good. Elysia is enjoying her school,
and is so far the only one in the family not to have complained about
the cold. We have been told this year’s autumn in Melbourne has been
unseasonably warm, and have been accused of bringing part of the
Malaysian weather with us to Melbourne. We just look at this as God’s
way of helping us ease in more gently! This morning we woke up to a 6
degree temperature and by the time Ian left home for work
(http://www.sharrockpitman.com.au) at 8.30, it was still only 7
degrees. In the evening however, we come home around 6pm, to a 15
degree temperature. We think this drops quickly later at night as
after dinner, we often feel cold. We have also taken to putting the
Vulcan to work for about half hour before we go to bed at night, which
is earlier now – around 9.30-10pm.

See – like all good Melburnians, we have begun learning how to ramble
on about the weather. We have yet to acquire skills to manage the
other favourite topics of conversations, i. e., Aussie Rules Football
(also topsy turvy now) and petrol prices (thankfully lower than before
– AUD0.95 per litre now). I guess in time we will also acquire these
skills.

We have settled into a routine which is bland, by any account. We look
forward to evenings and weekends, when the family can be together.
Dinner time is often fun, with chats about the day’s events. Theresa
and Ian alternately do the cooking, depending on who gets home first.
Lately Elysia has been doing the cleaning up after dinner, and usually
by around 7.30, everything’s finished. We then either watch tv or surf
the internet. We attend the prayer meeting on Wednesday nights and
have a bit of a prayer session ourselves on Tuesday nights. Often,
weekend involves some visits to an uncle’s or auntie’s house. Theresa
<!– D(["mb","has an uncle in Maribyrnong (west of Melbourne, about 45 minutes from
us), an uncle in Blackburn (10 minutes north of us) and an auntie in
Glen Waverley (10 minutes east of us). These visits are fun for all of
us because the adults chat and the kids have their own activities. All
these however, can only be enjoyed after we put in the usual Saturday
morning housework sessions. These include laundry, house cleaning
(vacuum, toilets and showers), car wash, and the occasional lawn
mowing (grass is mercifully slow in colder months). These cleaning
chores are usually followed by groceries shopping, often in the
Dandenong Markets, some 15-20 minutes east from our home. We try to
squeeze in the ironing (especially for Ian) on Saturday evenings so
that Sundays are for complete rest.

We still go to the International Christian Community in Glen Waverley
(just across the road from Theresa’s auntie’s home). Service there
starts at 10am and finishes at 12pm. The first hour is wholly praise
and worship, followed by the second hour of communion and preaching.
We miss the cell group type of meetings. There is no "Sunday School",
with the kids attending a ‘Kids’ Church" in an adjacent building. The
kids are with everyone else during the first hour and only go to their
own session in the second hour. There’s usually coffee/tea and
biscuits/cakes after service and most don’t rush home. There are no
KCMC-type of car park problems and most just linger and chat for a
long time, often for a whole hour!

We recently traded in our old Mitsubishi Magna for a new Nissan Pulsar
(known as Sentra in Malaysia). This was the car we were driving in
Malaysia and when the old Magna started to feel a bit wonky, we
decided to have a new car in the family (Theresa is also driving a
used car, a Holden Vectra). The experience of buying a car is much
less painful than in Malaysia (see Ian’s blog) and it was all done in
almost 1 day! We are still hoping to sell our old house in Berkeley
and are still thinking about buying our own house here in Melbourne.
Obviously these have been our prayer points and we greatly appreciate
your prayers for us also. Please do drop us a note or two to tell us
what we can be praying for you about. We will make a note of it and
pray for you during our family prayer time, as well as when we pray
individually.

—
Best regards,
“,1] ); //–> has an uncle in Maribyrnong (west of Melbourne, about 45 minutes from
us), an uncle in Blackburn (10 minutes north of us) and an auntie in
Glen Waverley (10 minutes east of us). These visits are fun for all of
us because the adults chat and the kids have their own activities. All
these however, can only be enjoyed after we put in the usual Saturday
morning housework sessions. These include laundry, house cleaning
(vacuum, toilets and showers), car wash, and the occasional lawn
mowing (grass is mercifully slow in colder months). These cleaning
chores are usually followed by groceries shopping, often in the
Dandenong Markets, some 15-20 minutes east from our home. We try to
squeeze in the ironing (especially for Ian) on Saturday evenings so
that Sundays are for complete rest.

We still go to the International Christian Community in Glen Waverley
(just across the road from Theresa’s auntie’s home). Service there
starts at 10am and finishes at 12pm. The first hour is wholly praise
and worship, followed by the second hour of communion and preaching.
We miss the cell group type of meetings. There is no "Sunday School",
with the kids attending a ‘Kids’ Church" in an adjacent building. The
kids are with everyone else during the first hour and only go to their
own session in the second hour. There’s usually coffee/tea and
biscuits/cakes after service and most don’t rush home. There are no
KCMC-type of car park problems and most just linger and chat for a
long time, often for a whole hour!