Italian hot chocolates

are awesome. I thought I should let you know that. It is my dream to make one someday. I make sure my dreams are achievable sometimes :D

[EDIT: wow ok apparently blogger deleted half of my post.. bleh!]

So I have been on tour for the last few days!!! An interesting time. It was only from Sunday till Tuesday, starting with a lovely 3:30 wakeup call to get on a 6:00 flight which was delayed by an hour. Oh Jetstar, how I love thee. XDD As it was, we got to Newcastle mid morning and went to a farmers market which was really lots of fun and lots of food :D:D:D I got some tea!!! Yay!! The concert that afternoon was as a part of a choral concert so we got some audience, which was really good, and I think it went really well too. After the concert all three choirs went to the pub for dinner and two of the guys from Sola managed to spend $80 on drinks and wake up bright and cheery the next morning. Well bright and cheery is overdoing it but, without extreme pain at Katie and my loud wakeup calls.

Next day we drove to Sydney, stopping at some rather odd places (a closed wildlife park and a very small port/rubbish tip of sorts), thanks GPS. Sydney is amazing, there's so much to see and do and EAT. Hom nom nom. Our hotel was INCREDIBLE so so so posh!!! We were sharing 6 to a room so we could afford it XD;;; And we were right next to a ramen shop so that was awesome too :D Our concert was in a beautiful Anglican cathedral in the CBD, but was extremely cold and because we don't know a lot of people down there, there was only a small audience XD That was ok though, it was an intimate concert... XDDD The performance didn't go quite as we had expected but the audience seemed to enjoy it, which is the main thing :) After, instead of going drinking, we all went back to the hotel and played games until 2 am which was EXTREMELY WIN. Although I am not so good at them it was so fun anyway!!

The next morning we got up and went to a Chinese bakery that Katie knew about (btw this is not me speaking in the third person, there is another Katie in the choir :P) and got delicious cheap breakfast and then split ways. I went off to the northern suburbs to look for a viola bow, and ended up walking like 5 k because a store had moved without me knowing! That was fun... Ahhh Sydney transport is so expensive *A*;; $17 for a daily ticket... ouch. Still. The trains are so so convenient and the buses aren't half bad.

***READ FROM HERE FOR LESS RAMBLE :D:D

For some reason I didn't feel like the tour was quite long enough... Usually tours are really good times to get to know each other better, and I got a lot closer to Ruby and Katie and Lana, but it would have been good to have a few more days. Also what was interesting is how tiredness and stress and whatnot affect people - some of them retreat inside themselves and become quiet, some pretend it's not happening and try to go about as they usually would, and some lash out. I think I might have been on the receiving end of one of the attacks, and I think it's kind of sad how people don't realise that they're doing it or how it makes the other person feel. Although you realise that it's probably not that you're a bad person, it still really hurts. I guess maybe I have an inferiority complex or something, but I was made to feel really really small and stupid, and it was probably half me anyway because I was also tired, but I realised that I've been doing this to other people as well and I'm really really sorry - to anyone who I've made feel like this, I definitely do not mean to do it and I'm trying super hard from now to think about things before I say them, especially when I'm tired or hungry (I get really grumpy when I'm hungry!!).

Lately I've been reading 1 and 2 Corinthians, and a few things really resonated with these kinds of situations:


1 Corinthians 16:13 "Do everything in love" and 2 Corinthians 5:16 - 17 "So from now on, regard no one from a worldy point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

The first one is self-explanatory. If you're going to do something that's going to impact on someone (which is pretty much anything), think about it first. Think about whether it's going to help them at all, or comfort them, or give them what they need, whether it be strength, encouragement, guidance, support, or a reality check, or anything else. And then think about how you're going to do it, so that if it's something that might hurt them at first, you present it in the gentlest way possible, without losing the message.

The second one is something I hadn't thought about before I read this. Yes, people have faults. Everyone has faults. But if God, if Christ can forgive them, then how much more should we. We shouldn't even expect people to not sin against us, because we are on the same level as everyone. I know I have trouble with this because I assume the best in everyone at first, and when I'm badly hurt or disappointed I can't get that out of my head. Pretty much, rather than communicating and behaving around people according to their sins, behave as you would around someone who's been reconciled with Christ, who's been forgiven by the dude who made the universe and everything and is super enormous and awesome and can I please have your signature?

Anyone who's reading this, I challenge you to go out and do everything in love, and not act towards people's weaknesses but their strengths. Ou!!!