I've just loaned $100 to a father of three children in Togo (a country in West Africa) so he can build a better life for his family.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=49113

Matthew was born on 8 June!

Have added a photo in my wedding dress. We got married during Spring Festival (the Chinese equivalent to the Christmas season). On Chinese New Year's Eve, the tradition is for everyone to go home to their parents and make dumplings all night. This includes making the pastry and rolling out hundreds of little round dumpling wrappers. You then spend a few hours wrapping the dumplings and then you cook them and eat them at midnight.

I have Chinese heritage, but because my great grandparents came to Australia in the late 1800s, the few traditions that have survived are over a hundred years old. It's like being stuck in a time warp. Imagine meeting someone who came to Australia as an early settler then went to live overseas, but has carried on some of the traditions from that time. Nathan has found it rather amusing to say the least. It's been great to reconnect with my cultural roots, but I've realised that I'm as Chinese as most of you!