Midnight Adventures

One set of twins.

So as I said in my last post my Mum has a little farmlet that includes, amongst many other living things, 8 sheep. When I got home, straight after something like 18 hours of flying, and lunch together with my Mum and  sister, and a trip to the hairdressers, (must have correct priorities ;-),  Mum took me off to see the sheep, and help herd them! - Before she took me to see the new house.

She wanted to separate one that was going to give birth in a day or two, away from the others, and into the paddock with the other new mothers.  In the last few weeks the flock has expanded to 19 as the sheep have all been having lambs - lots of twins!!!

Since then I have had several opportunities to help herd sheep, under the noonday sun, the wintery wind and the driving rain. Does that make me a shepherd?

Mum is very protective and proud of her sheep. She goes out and feeds them fancy sheep food every morning, after that they just have to settle for grass the rest of the day. If one baa's too long or too insistently she will go out to see what the problem is.

Well on Saturday night at around 11:30pm they started baa'ing. So out she went and out I went too. We couldn't see anything and the sheep settled down after we arrived. But just as we were leaving Mum noticed that one of them had a blue stripe on its back. None of us put it there ... Nothing we could do at the time, so we went back to bed.

The next morning it was discovered that four of the sheep have acquired blue stripes. No idea ...

If the mystery is solved I shall tell you all about it ;-)

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

While I was in Korea my Mum achieved a life long dream. She and my Step-Father purchased a lovely block of land in the country. It has lots of trees, a lovely house, a veranda, a garden and a glass house, a river complete with swimming hole and swing, a hill, 8 sheep and 1 chicken.

Actually they did not purchase the chicken. It flew in one morning a few weeks ago and has simply refused to leave. It is not a very nice chicken!!! It regularly attacks my poor blind cat. When Cinnamon (my Cat) pokes her nose out of the house, within a very short amount of time the evil chicken will be flying in her face, and trying to peck her. Cinnamon is becoming quite afraid to go outside. It also tries to sneak into the house, as it has discovered Cinnamon's cat food, and apparently loves it! She waits near the door and at opportune times, ie when the door has been left open, it will cluck it's way inside, and gobble down as much cat food as it can before it is found and shooo'd outside again.

The evil chicken does have one redeeming quality however, it thinks it's a puppy. When ever a human goes outside it will follow along at quite close range where ever the human is going.

Every morning we have heard her clucking triumphantly, announcing to the world the she has successfully laid another egg. Today I finally found the nest. There were seventeen organic free range eggs in it. They all passed the freshness test.

Guess what I'm having for breakfast????

A Rose By Any Other Name ...

Happy Sabbath Eve, aka Preparation Day, aka Friday. :-) It doesn't matter what we call it, today is the day when we get ready for tomorrow, and tomorrow is the day that we are privileged to spend in the presence of the Holy God.

Actually here in NZ it's already Sabbath, well past sunset and into Special Time. For the rest of the world have a wonderful day as you get to take your turn having a blessed Sabbath Rest.

Enjoy your Special Time with Jesus.

Cat

The Future

The big question ... where to go, what to do NEXT?  My answer unfortunately is, 'I don't know.'

My head says the practical thing to do would be to stay in NZ for a year and get a job teaching in a high school so that my teacher registration is maintained for another five years. At the same time I could complete the Masters and do a TESOL course - yes, they are all possible.

My heart wants to go back to Korea, and teach English to adults somewhere in Seoul. One thing I learned while I was in Korea is that you can be a missionary anywhere, I don't need to be working for a church organisation to be a missionary. But it will be much easier to get the kind of job I want if I have finished my Masters and done a TESOL course.

And then there is a mission school in India that needs a foreign teacher. But they can only afford to pay local wages and I have commitments that make it impossible for me to live on local wages. My Spirit wants to leap out in faith and just go, my Head says, 'Count the Cost.' One thing I have become very aware of since I finished my time as a missionary in Korea is that there is a huge shortage of people who are willing and able to get out of their comfort zones and go somewhere new to tell people about the love of Jesus.

And so I pray and wait.

And I follow the only solution I can think of, apply for everything that appeals, both in Korea and in NZ and to ask God to close all the doors I'm not supposed to walk through, because ultimately I only want to go where God wants me to be. If that place is a high school in NZ for a year then I shall be practical and stay put. If that place is back to Korea then my heart will be exceedingly happy. And if that place is India then my spirit will be delighted to see God do His miracles that free me to go there. And if that place is somewhere else entirely then I'll enjoy the surprise.

If you could pray with me I would definitely appreciate your prayers, and while your praying also follow the instruction from Luke 10:2 "... pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." Because we need more people who are available and have a passion for teaching others about God's goodness and Jesus' soon return.

Rediscovering Treasure

When I packed up my house all those years ago - 4 to be exact - I got rid of lots of stuff and boxed the rest and put it into storage. Since I have been home I have been going through those boxes, sorting them, and discovering all sorts of dubious 'treasure.' The aim is to reduce the amount of stuff I own!!

Some things are in the "What was I thinking?' category, others come under, 'What is it? and Why did I keep it?' And then of course there are all those 'Favourite Things' that I briefly caress and then repack so they are safe while the next adventure takes me away again.

Some of the more interesting items I have found so far:

3 metre long feather boa, brown in colour, purchased for a themed murder mystery night costume. It makes any room where it is used look like a chicken was plucked in it. Destined for my sister's dress up box. Hope she likes vacuumming.

Bag of marbles from when I was 10, does that make them antique? Donated to my nephews toy collection.

Equally ancient 14 sided rubrics cube, never solved, but it is somewhat easier now as half the colours have fallen off, 3 sides of black? Can do!

103 (or thereabouts) recipe books. Repacked! One day I will have to stop adventuring and then I'm going to cook every one of those recipes. Truly. Actually it turns out books are among the hardest things to cull, the book boxes are not reducing by very much at all ...

The Green Jersey (Sweater for Americans) I knitted in College, actually if I am honest I didn't actually knit much of it. My Step Sister taught me to knit. I would go over to her house, laborously knit two rows of the course of two hours and then just before I would go home she would whip out another five, still took me months and months to finish it. By the time I had finished it I was too fat to wear it. Now however - twenty years later - I actually can fit it, so I proceeded to wear it the entire day I discovered it. Serendipitously the day was rather chilly, but I suspect I would have worn it even if the temperature had been 35 degrees C in the shade, just because I could.

And finally this, the best note a teacher could ever get from a parent! Never actually used it, but did wave it in a threatening way a couple of times. (To any PC people that are reading this blog, let me say that I had a great relationship with that family, both parents and kids.)

I only had one note that was more memorable in my entire teaching career, it said;


          Dear Miss XXXX

          XXXXX was late for school today because she was a @$#%^.

          Yours Sincerely

          and then the father signed his name.


My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read that. Wasn't sure what shocked me most, that the father had actually written that or that the girl had delivered it. Another time the same girl had another note from a different caregiver, she was late because the caregiver had to vacuum the back lawn! I kid you not!! Apparently the girl had tossed some bread crumbs out for the birds and the caregiver felt this would just encourage Cats to stalk them, therefore the crumbs must be vacuumed up post haste. (She was one of my favourites, the girl not the crazy caregiver, so was the boy from the gagging and binding note above. I know teachers say we don't have favourites, but we do. We just try very hard not to treat them any different to everybody else.)

Coming Home

NZ from above.

Well it's been a while and much has changed since I last posted. Suffice to say my time in Korea has come to an end for the present and I am back in New Zealand enjoying the comforts of home and the love of my family.

It is very lovely to listen to English 24/7, to be able to talk to anyone and know they will understand me, to use big words, to talk as fast as I want. My sister tells me my speaking has become more correct/crisp.

I'm also loving the fact that cars drive on the correct side of the road over here - no more looking three times  before I cross a road to make sure I don't get run over! I'm loving driving again!!!! I missed driving in Korea - but I had no intention of driving there - those are scary roads - too many cars and too many signs I am too slow at reading.

Driving around Auckland has been fun, but I can't help making comparisons to Korea, all the low one or two storey buildings - in fact not counting the CBD you can count the high rise buildings in Auckland on two hands and a foot.

One thing that has been really interesting is reverse culture shock. I wasn't expecting that!

It started on the plane on the way home. My first flight, Seoul to Hong Kong, was with Korean Air and the flight attendants were young, beautiful and tiny. Then from Hong Kong to Auckland I flew Air New Zealand and the flight attendants were old, ugly and huge! I wondered if Air NZ had purposely chosen the ugliest people the could find??? Having said that they were also incredibly helpful, the person who booked my flight forgot to book vegetarian meals for me and the Air NZ people went out of their way to find me vege food.

Once I arrived in Auckland I was shocked at how old, everybody looked, and how fat we are and how scruffy, and what huge noses we have!! (Korean's don't really get wrinkles until they are very very old, we on the other hand wrinkle in middle age.) I guess a year and a half of seeing slim and trim Koreans with small noses and business style clothes has altered my perception. I realised then that the Air NZ flight attendants probably weren't ugly, it's just my warped perceptions. It's been about a month now and I'm finally starting to see NZ'ers as normal again.

Another aspect of reverse culture shock has been the bathroom - I hated the toilet paper bin in the bathroom in Korea but it's become such a habit to use it that several times I've caught myself looking around wondering where I was supposed to deposit my used paper ... habit ... duh!

Since I've been home I've been working my way through my list of food I've missed:

• Crunchy Peanut Butter on Vogels toast - yes I know you can get peanut butter in Korea, but it's all imported from the US and has added sugar, Peanut butter should NOT be sweet! NZ peanut butter - delicious!!!
• LnP - if you don't know what this is ... ^^ come visit me in NZ and find out!
• Feijoa's - it is the wrong season for feijoa's but my Step Father bottled some for me, had them with Tip Top French Vanilla Ice cream - Heaven!
• Watties Tomato Sauce - on everything :-D Much better than Ketchup!
• Avocado - wonderful!!! In Korea they cost around $5 each when you can find them.

and the list goes on, but I won't tell you everything, wouldn't want to make you jealous ;-)

Another interesting thing has been seeing my families new home - they moved while I was away. It is in the country and it is like a park, there is a large hill, a stream and lots of green grass. In fact that is one thing I'm really really enjoying seeing all the grass and trees, in Seoul there is hardly any grass and very few trees. Here is a pic of their place - I shall have to take a better one, maybe when all the spring growth has sprung.

What happens next? Where is this Gypsy adventuring to after her holiday?? I don't know yet. Still praying and waiting to see where God sends me - to be honest I'm hoping it is back to Korea. But I do know that He has a plan and He will reveal it at just the right time and it will be glorious and fun and worthwhile for building up His Kingdom. And in the mean time I have the opportunity to sort all my stuff in storage and rediscover old treasures, and wonder what I was thinking when I decided to pack such and such, and get rid of some of the weirder things, and repack the rest. But that is a story for another post.

Cheers

Cat