Migrant & Refugee Sunday

Today was the Migrant and Refugee Sunday in Church and it was just very gratifying to see the Church full-packed with people as well as with activities. Some people, specifically those with special roles, came in their national costumes (bet it was so cold for Barong Tagalog & Baro't Saya). Most had the festive mood before the mass even started. The choir was well-attended and Philippines very well-represented.

There were two co-celebrants with Fr. John and one of them was Fr. Crismark (?), a Filipino priest; the other one a Korean priest.

The kyrie was sung in Indonesian, Korean and Irish.

The first reading was in Korean.

The psalms was in English and was sung by a Filipino.

The second reading was in Indian language.

The Gospel was in English and was read by Fr. Crismark.

During the Homily, Fr. John reiterated that Australia, our country, is a migrant country and he couldn't have emphasized it more. We all have chosen to emigrate and how distinct we all may be, wherever we may have come from, no matter how small or big our eyes are, how white or black our colors are, we are all here to make it work and to respect the diversity of the cultures. He put it really very well and I actually had goose-bumps listening to his message.

The prayers of the faithful was in different languages, amongst which was in Filipino.

And the offertory was presented by, our best guess, the Dutch.

The Lord's Prayer was sung in the original Latin lyrics (for several weeks now so most of us are already familiar with the pronounciation, not enough to memorize it though!).

It was a beautiful celebration and an interesting experience for us. We are proud to be part of the community but it just makes it more difficult for us to decide to leave the council (we are house-hunting again and who knows where this will bring us this time around!).

Bedtime Funnies

When we got to bed last night, the following conversation transpired after I saw hubby making funny faces.

Wife: What are you doing?

Husband: I'm stretching my face, it feels so dry.

Wife: Well, use my moisturizer. Put some on your face.

Husband: Ok, can you please get it and apply it on my face? Have no idea how you do it.

Wife (too tired to get up): Hmm ... do it tomorrow, one day (after thirty-plus years of no moisturizer) wouldn't make that much difference.

We both burst out laughing.

When Sydney went B & W

It was a beautiful and sunny Tuesday morning today and the first time since May (when I returned from Manila) that I reported to work without a coat. At lunchtime, hubby and I even had a good walk over to a fastfood station and the weather was sweet.

But just when I thought winter is almost over, a thunderstorm hit Sydney around 4pm. It was loud then the city went black, I did notice that from where I was sitting, but poor IT slaves, like yours truly, don't get a good window-seat so I had no idea what was actually happening outside - couldn't be bothered to get up and walk to the window for I was too caught up with work. It was business as usual. Then when I left the office 30 past 5, the wind was the usual nice and cool, which I really like specially when I'm about to get into a train that is heated -- I get motion-sick easily when it's too warm in the train.

Our train ride on the way home stopped midway and didn't move for 30 minutes. We were informed that someone from the train ahead had a heart attack causing the delay for all trains operating on the same track! We patiently waited, I finished my Sudoku puzzle for the day, had a quick chat with my Ninong & cousin while hubby was reading the last few pages of his Robert Jordan pocketbook. Still oblivious of what had happened when the city went black, when we got to our station, we even went grocery-shopping before finally coming home.


After dinner and during the routine personal email checks and internet-news browsing, we found out that when the city went black it went white soon after ... some city streets were covered in near-ankle-deep hail. Visit the Sydney Morning Herald's picture slideshow to get a glimpse of how it looked like. (R photo courtesy of SMH) These photos are as much as we've seen.

Can't believe we missed it but can't really say we're sorry though ... thank God these all happened while we were still at work for I don't believe we were appropriately dressed for a sudden change in weather.

Serious about Census

8th of August 2006 is Australia Census Night and everyone here is serious about it. Each household should record the details of all people (including visitors) who spend the night in the dwelling on Census Night. It is a compulsary activity and penalties of upto $100/day is enforced for failure to do so. This can be completed either by filling in a Census form (distributed a week before) or thru the Internet. For an excited first-timer, I did both! Hehe I submitted the internet form, I'm keeping the hard-copy printed form in our file.

It was pretty interesting filling in the form, a first for me as I don't even recall any Census form of any kind back home. I remember someone just ringing the bell on the gate, though, and quickly ask the number of people living in the house. Due to lack of collector's proper identification, we would even hesitate to entertain the questions as we couldn't be sure who else could have access to their files.

Here, by law, the Census information are to be kept confidential with the option to make it available for the National Archives of Australia after 99 years! I did agree to make ours available after 99 years, no big deal ... something for our kids/grand-kids to interest themselves on I guess. They will learn about my religion, education, qualifications, income and job. Hubby, on the other hand, is an absentee the first time so all they got is his name and age :)

I wonder how fast the Australian Bureau of Statistics can process all the records and how soon they can reveal the latest Australian population. Just some census facts before the official 2006 release:

Population
20,589,208 (July 2006 - ABS)
--- less than one-fourth of Philippines population (87,857,473+)

Population growth rate
1.2% (December 2005 - ABS)

In July 2006, the population growth rate is based on estimates of:
- one birth every 2 minutes and 0 seconds,
- one death every 3 minutes and 55 seconds,
- a net gain of one international migrant every 4 minutes and 47 seconds leading to
- an overall total population increase of one person every 2 minutes and 12 seconds.