| Ch ch ch ch ch changes. |
[Sep. 27th, 2007|02:06 pm] |
Yes, I have been very lazy and haven't done an entry since last year.
Well, in case you haven't heard the news, I recently got engaged to my lovely other half of nearly 14 months now. So of course, now the fun begins. At least we have secured a venue for our engagement party. Also, with the advent of Tamara getting a job offer for teaching next year which she has taken, it will mean moving to the country. It's definately an exciting time and also stressful as well, especially with the struggle to find venues to have various things as at.
What it means for me, is both work and study are things that need to be decided upon, as to wether I don't work at all and go full time via correspondence or get a part time job and still do part time study.
Work took the news about me leaving prett well. The boss had asumed that it maybe the case if Tamara got a job in the country. And he's willing to help out with me finding work up in the Riverland if I need any help. In a way, I'll be sad to leave this place but also very happy at the same time. It's been nearly 5 years here which has seen lots of changes in what I actually do.
So all in all, lots of things happening. But that's life! |
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| Back to the Real World |
[Nov. 1st, 2006|03:50 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | stressed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Alison Krauss & Union Station - It Doesn't Matter | ] |
So my Melbourne trip has come and gone. It sucks, but it happens. Melbourne and the subsequent few days here back at home were a great time.
Arrived there on Thursday the 19th around lunch time and headed straight into the city. Got off the bus and got directions straight to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. All I can say is they are the nicest doughnuts ever. I hung around for about another hour or so to wait until Dana from Sydney arrived. We jumped straight into a train to head to the place we were staying at for the first 2 nights of our stay. I can say we crashed pretty quickly that night.
Friday was spent wandering around the city, meeting up with more Browncoats (Firefly/Serenity fans for those of you who aren't in the know). We held a party at the place I was staying at, lots of fun. Chocolate fountain, pizza, beer, brain haemorages (that's a drink), Guitar Hero and Buzz on Playstation 2 and Pictionary. Ended up going to bed a bit late and had about 2 hours solid sleep for the long day on Saturday.
It's always the way though. Saturday's Card Game tournament was bad. Throughout my play testing of the deck I had constructed, I drew my cards when I needed them. Came to the tournament itself and couldn't draw when I needed them. I won 2, lost 6 and dropped out with one round to go, to get to the basketball game in time. I did learn some neat tricks and the like from the better players there and still had a great time, considering how seedy I was feeling the entire day.
Unfortunately the 36ers lost the game against the Tigers that night, but can't complain much. Had prime seats there, very close to the action. Headed to my other friends place I was staying with afterwards which was just a few minutes walk from the stadium and promptly crashed early that night.
Sunday we headed out to St Kilda for lunch and more fun with Browncoats. Did some shopping in the city and bought a few Iron-on badges to do with Serenity. Monday was more fun in the city for my birthday and flew back home Tuesday morning.
The rest of the week I spent at home recovering from the weekend.
Now back at work and the stress levels have gone through the roof again. :( |
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| Melbourne Here We Come! |
[Oct. 16th, 2006|12:15 pm] |
Some of you may know that I'm off to Melbourne this week. I'm really looking forward to it and know that it's going to be jam packed.
I leave here on Thursday, arriving in Melbourne around lunch time. In fact, I fly in the same time as another Browncoat (Firefly/Serenity fan) arrives from Sydney. So we are both going to head into the city from the airport together. We are staying at the same places each night, so that makes things a lot easier. Will probably scope around the city for a bit before heading to where I'm staying. Friday is currently totally unplanned apart from evening activity at the person I'm staying with place.
Saturday, the main reason I am going, is the $10K Championship for the Vs Trading Card Game. I've been thoroughly play testing my deck that I plan to use over there with a few minor adjustments to go. After that, going to the basketball and then moving on to another persons place to stay with.
Sunday is hanging out with more Browncoats day and having a day early birthday celebration. Monday, probably do some shopping in Melbourne and Tuesday return home.
I'll post a full report of how things go when I get back.
Oh and something that needs to be said. It's great when Prayers are answered. My Grandfather had to go into hospital with a 3 inch tumour on his lung. He had it operated on and the doctors have given him the all clear. Thanks for the prayers from the guys in my small group! |
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| Refreshing Retreat |
[Sep. 11th, 2006|01:18 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | refreshed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Evanescence - Call Me When You're Sober | ] |
Okay, I've been slack and haven't touched this since the start of the year, but I finally feel inspired a bit more to actually write something.
To give a little background, I have been involved with a program called New Leader Training, covering the basics of being a youth leader in churches. The topics included in the program have been 4 Foundations topics - Character; Leadership; Ministry; and Evangelism, as well as 5 specific topics - Understanding the Bible; Safety, Care and Ethics; God and Salvation; Church and the Holy Spirit; and Understanding and Caring for Youth. Each topic has been pretty intensive in it's content, particularly the Foundations series and the Church and the Holy Spirit topic. As part of the program, a retreat weekend has been included, which was on the weekend just past.
The weekend consisted of us getting together at a camp site at Kuitpo Forest in the hills, getting setup and then the group of us all went into the bush and sat by ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. Some people lasted only an hour alone to the full length of 7 hours. I managed to spend 6.5 hours out there alone, which for me is an achievement in itself. I've never been one to be alone with no distractions and just sit and be but I'm impressed that I did make it that long alone in the freezing cold without packing it in and returning to the campsite. I admit that I did fall asleep a few times whilst sitting there in the bush, but it was quite relaxing. We had been given a worksheet to use as a guide for the time alone and I did pick and choose a few of the items.
One of the topics to look at was an evaluation of my life over the last 12 months and I drew a "Happiness Graph" and let's just say, most of it was down in the really low areas. I had a look at it quite indepth and noticed that the happy periods were whilst I was away from work spending a lot of time with friends and not so much stress from work. The worst period being the last few months of last year. Looking at this drove me to looking at one of the topics in the list, being reading the Gospel of Mark in one sitting.
One particular passage really hit me like a slap to the face with a wet fish and I realised that over the last year, I have been very much like what is mentioned in this passage. Mark 4:1-20 is quite a powerful passage once you are able to understand it. The Parable of the Four Soils is one of the most fundamental parable's that is in the Bible as it explains how that the Word of God will fall upon listener's ears. Looking at it made me realise how much over the last 12 months that I have felt like the seeds that fall on the path and don't grow at all or being the seeds that land in shallow soil and grow quickly but die just as quick. We all should strive to be the seed lands in the fertile soil and grows to produce a larger crop than how it started. I have very much been like the first 2 mentioned as I have allowed too many things distract me and cause more stress in my life. In that time I have probably withdrawn a lot and have very much been going through the motions of attending church and small group but not really being open enough and share what has been going on in my life. It has really challenged me to be more open with my friends and I'm hoping that using my blog again can help express that in a written way. Even for the lack of sleep the weekend entailed, I have come back feeling quite refreshed spiritually and actually glad that I have taken today off work to sit and reflect more on the weekend. Isn't it great that doing something that really takes you out of your comfort zone can be one of the most rewarding experiences you have had for a while......... |
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| New Year and hopefully New Entries |
[Jan. 5th, 2006|05:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | bored | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | VA - Angel Main Theme | ] |
Well, it's a New Year and it's about time I put up another post.
Currently on holidays from work and loving it lots, apart from the stress of having my car broken into Christmas Eve and having to deal with that for a few days. At least this coming Friday until Tuesday I'm going to be away camping with a lot of friends, away from it. I can tell I'm in holiday mode as I haven't been wearing a watch and haven't bothered about what time it is. The camp should be a lot of fun, just relaxing with mates, going fishing, playing some poker (got a great poker t-shirt with the words "Folding is for Quitters" printed on it, which a mate said I should fold first and reveal the t-shirt), going bike riding and a whole heap of other things. It will also be a chance for me to get to know one of the girls going a bit better after we had a pretty long conversation on New Year's Eve. You never know if something will develop from it. I kinda hope it does, but it may just become one of those good friendships.
On the subject of New Year's Eve, it was a rather hot day, but the parties were great. First off, was at a friends place for a bbq dinner and a wading pool, followed by a 90's party at the place I'm staying at for a while. Definately drank lots, but felt fine the next day, apart from a being sleepy. In fact, this whole holiday period so far has been great, spending time with friends and just vegging out with people (apart from the next part).
Have been out looking at more houses though to move into after I had to leave where I was staying until mid December. Currently living with some friends as a temporary thing, but it's hard to find something at this time of year. There were several really nice looking places though that a mate and myself have checked out the last few days, particularly the 3 bedroom unit that we saw today.
I also have a new member in my family, a new nephew who was born on Tuesday. His brother is very excited and it should be interesting to see how he copes with having another child in the family after attention all the time. I've briefly seen him, but due to me going away tomorrow, I won't get to see him until I get back from camp, and he should be home by then.
Well, that should be enough for now. |
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| Finally another Entry |
[Jul. 26th, 2005|12:58 pm] |
Well, kinda late, but finally another entry, over a year after my first!
Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to get to the Doctor Who: Inside the TARDIS tour. It was a great afternoon. Katy Manning, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy were the guests and were all in fine form. They talked about their time on the show and told some interesting stories, particularly Katy breaking her ankle on the first day of shooting, Colin talking about doing his own stunts, and Sylvester talked about the "Irish" Daleks during the filming of Remembrance.
I got to have my photo taken with Colin and Sylvester as well. So that was a childhood dream come true!
I hope to put some more details up about this later. I really should get back to work! |
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| First Blog - Aka Friday night with nothing else to do |
[May. 21st, 2004|08:08 pm] |
Well, this is my first entry after a short week at work. The reason? Good old South Australia had the Adelaide Cup Public Holiday last weekend. Plus I took an extra long weekend to drive to Ceduna and spend time with my girl-friend who is there teaching at the moment.
Ceduna is about 800km's West of Adelaide (or 500 miles for those on the evil-Imperial system), so about a 9 hour drive away. I took the friday of last week off to drive over there. It's long, boring, and if you aren't careful, you could fall asleep and end up crashing your car. The only real wildlife you can see during the day is the usual bugs, including those charming things known as Locusts that leave HUGE smears on your windscreen, a few birds, oh, and some dead Roos and Emus on the side of the road. Now Ceduna isn't such a bad place, but on a long weekend, it's pretty dead quiet. Mind you, it was wonderfully relaxing, which is the sort of weekend that I wish that I could have every time. We didn't do much really, but it was great to see her as it won't be until another 6 weeks before I see her again. :(
The drive back was pretty uneventful, but a chance to see some nice scenery of the Flinders Ranges, just outside Pt Augusta, which is the crossroads of Australia. Seeing the ranges covered up in cloud with sun light breaking into the lower regions was a beautiful site.
It was back to work on wednesday, with a few days worth of work to catch up on. Not too bad really. Thursday was the highlight, as it's for me, COMIC DAY! Being a fan of the X-Men, I had to rush to get the latest issues, and boy, do the conclusions to Excalibur #1 and X-Men #157 leave me wanting more, as well as being total What the Fuck???!!!?? moments. Okay, in the last few arcs in the series, Magneto was posing as a character called Xorn. Wolverine at the conclusion of one of the arcs killed Mags by lopping off his head with his claws. Now, in the last page of Excalibur, we see Mags alive and well, HELPING Charles Xavier. How the hell did he survive decapitation? Plus, at the end of X-Men, it's revealed that Xorn (the real one) is alive and has caused a big gaping chasm in China.
Well, so it comes down to the end of the week as I type this out. Any words of wisdom you find in this, let me know! If not, see you in the funny pages! |
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