Before I Forget

This post is for exactly what it says. Today was a wonderful day full of experiences and I wanted to put it into some sort of writing before bits of it slipped from my memory. This morning Aunt Mary, who is one of the most lovely eldery ladies you could ever meet, took Graham and I to a Koala sanctuary. Little did we know that this place was more than just a Koala sanctuary, it was more like a miniature zoo. Mary payed for our admission and insisted that we had to pet the Koalas when the keepers took them out of their artificial habitat. She also bought a few small bags of food to feed the kangaroos with. Not only did we have the privelege of petting Thomas (the koala), we also hand fed Kangaroos from inside their pen. The cutest one would have had to have been the little joey that was desperately trying to get as much food out of my hand as possible. Some of the other animals that we saw included a wombat, echidnas, dingoes (no, they didn't eat anyones baby), possums, and many other truly Aussie animals.

After we returned from the Koala Sanctuary Graham and I started to make the most of our one week public transport passes that we purchased. After finding it difficult to drive around Sydney we decided that it'd be more convenient, less frustrating, and ultimately more cost effective to use public transport. We took a bus down to Darling Harbour and spent the entire afternoon there. Darling Harbour has restaurants, shops, museums, and wildlife attractions that attract both tourists as well as Sydney residents. We managed to spend some of our money on gifts for people at home, who will remain unnamed. I'm sure we also managed to spend some money on ourselves.

Well, I suppose the purpose of this blog has been completed and I can now go back at some later date and be reminded of what it is I did while I was in Sydney. For now I must be off to bed. Have a wonderful New Year and I really do wish God's truest blessings on all of you. Cheers.

New South Wales, Always an Adventure

Well, well, well. Yesterday, Saturday the 27th, Graham and I completed another leg of our trip. We managed to make the 13 hour drive from Cobden, Victoria to Sydney, New South Wales. This drive was most definitely longer than our drive from Adelaide to Cobden and we saw more of a change in the weather as well. The rain came down for close to 45 minutes and the majority of it was heavy. Several cars were pulled off to the shoulder, but being the men that we are we decided to keep going, albeit at a slower pace. The rain eventually cleared up and we made a gas/mackers stop (mackers is abbreviation for McDonalds, Aussies love to abbrev). Sydney is a huge city, that is about all I'll say about that. Five million large to be exact. Once we got in to Sydney it took us a fair while to find the place where we're staying, but with help from several people we managed to make our way here eventually.

Our accomadations for the next 5 days is at a house owned by a great auntie once removed. You could just say a distant relative of mine I suppose. Her name is Mary and she's actually originally from Canada herself but has lived in Australia for the majority of her life. Our plans for the next few days go something like this. Tomorrow morning Mary is taking us down to a wildlife sanctuary which is one of her favorite places to go. Apparently we can actually pet the Koalas there and do all that touristy stuff. I suppose we'll have to take some pictures of that at the very least. The day after that Caitlin is flying back to Australia and landing in Sydney for about 30 hours. She'll stay with us for a night and we'll probably end up taking a ferry underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge and past the Sydney Opera House (both of which we saw last night on our way into the city. After we drop of Caitlin on the 31st we'll have to head down to the circular quay and probably set up camp for the New Years fireworks. As Aunt Mary said, everybody and their dog will want to see the fireworks and so we'll probably hang around the shops and the opera house all day to be able to get a decent view of the once in a lifetime experience. New Years day will probably be a sleeping in one and most likely just relaxing in a quiet suburb after a night of millions of people. The second of January is the day that we're planning to leave for Byron Bay. If all goes well we should be able to make it to Byron Bay for a late dinner and meet up with some of the people from the YWAM Adelaide base, which I suppose is a part of our Australian family by now.

Before I get going I will leave you with a bit of lame humour, nothing I made up myself but two different signs I saw in the last two days. The first was along the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Sydney and it was for a town called Howlong. The sign literally read 'Howlong this Exit'. Like I already told somebody, if you say it as a question with an asian accent it's much more funny. The second sign was one I saw today on our way back from a walk along the wharf. Mary's house is near an old Psych Hospital and they have many different buildings with many different signs, some of them still being used as specialized wards for certain things. The sign read 'Schizophrenia Fellowship', no joke. Now before you go off and say how mean that is, just think about it. Does there have to be more than one person in the room? Meh, I'll let you wrestle with that deep and profound thought. I must get going but I would love to hear how Christmas's went and what the New Years plans are. Cheers for now.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and Christmas wishes. I have felt encouraged many times by family and friends and am truly blessed to have supporters. Your continued prayers in the next couple of weeks would also be appreciated as we are planning to be on the road for most of January. Thank you.

Not sure what to call it

This will probably be very brief because, well, there's not much to speak of. The last couple of weeks have been pretty much the same thing. Walking the dog, going for a daily run, reading, playing tennis (sort of), and doing some random other things along the way.

As Christmas fast approaches, and believe me it doesn't even feel like Christmas, there's a few family things coming up, but nothing like at home. I'll be honest, I will miss Christmas at home. Overeating with my relatives, playing hockey with friends, Christmas caroling. The two of us have only got a few days left here in Cobden and the rest of our days should be filled with Christmas events and before we know it we'll be watching the fireworks near Sydney harbour.

I will be on the road for the next month or so and really don't know how often I'll udate, but I'm sure if you ask I might be able to find some time to write a little bit. Plans are coming together and our car has proved reliable so far and we're looking forward to what's in store in the near future. Some other exciting news is that Graham was accepted for a Sports DTS which will be starting in Perth this coming July. It would be awesome if you could keep the both of us in your prayers, especially Graham as he prepares to do his DTS. I'd love to here some Christmas stories from at home, or anywhere with snow for that matter. I'll talk to you all later, but for now I must go.

Cheers

Change of Pace

Haven't blogged in about two weeks, since I left the YWAM base in Adelaide actually. Since than Graham and I have been in Cobden, Victoria which is about 2 and half hours south of Melbourne near a city called Warrnambool. We are living with a family whose daughter was an exchange student in year 10 at the SRSS.

The thing about Victoria is that it's known as the rainy place in the southern parts of Australia. So far, it hasn't disappointed. This last weekend was filled with rain and I'm not even sure how many centimetres we got over friday and saturday. Due to the rain we haven't been able to get out too much and because we're in a small town there isn't much to do indoors without driving a fair ways, and driving means spending money so I feel like we've been a bit lazy as of late. There have been a few nice days where Graham and I have played some tennis and I've been able to get out and run almost every day, other than that there hasn't been too much physical activity.

I would just like to take this one small paragraph to say that it's almost Christmas. Wow. If you're someone who has spent all of their Christmases in the snow than you know where I'm coming from. What a weird feeling, less than ten days until Christmas and no sign of snow, in fact it will only get hotter. I suppose there are a few positives to it though. Let's see, golfing on Christmas eve, playing tennis, getting sunburnt on Christmas day. Okay, so I might not actually do those things, but those aren't even possible at home. Merry Christmas.

Graham and I took this morning to make the short drive down the road to check out an Anglican Abbey and just to see what they're all about. There wasn't a whole lot going on but we did get a few neat pictures and just an idea of how they live. Needless to say Graham and I aren't exactly the tourist types. We don't go to the typical places and check out all the attractions, call us crazy but we're not those people.

So I've got several small and unimformative paragraphs and I don't really feel like writing too much more. It's been good to hear from some of you at home and hopefully I can connect with a few more of you in the future. God Bless and thanks for your prayers and Christmas wishes. Cheers.

My First Last Weekend in Adelaide

The title makes sense, because I'll be coming back to the base before I actually fly home. Now that we've got that cleared up, on to more exciting things. This past weekend was more than likely my last weekend at the YWAM base, at least until February that is. I'll do my best to divide this post into three sections, for various reasons. First, because weekends are divided into three days. Second, because good sermons are typically written in three parts. Third, because there are three meals in a day (just nod your head and agree that it all makes sense).

Welcome to the first part of my weekend, Friday night; breakfast if you will. Friday night Dan, Anne, Graham, Michelle, and myself went out to an event called The Lounge. This was actually the last Lounge event being held and we were lucky enough to experience some of it. The Lounge is basically a live music cafe where local artists, who typically play acoustic or piano type music, have the opportunity to play in front of a small audience. Each event usually has a specific social justice theme and Friday's was a small fund raiser and awareness night for Darfur, which is a province in Sudan. (shout out to Ian because he's been to Sudan). There were several local artists but really only two that I enjoyed, I think that was the general consensus among most of us. That about sums it up for Friday evening.

Next we have Saturday, the lunch of the weekend. Saturday morning we had the great privilege of, you guessed it, sleeping in. Saturday's are excellent for that reason and it seemed that we were still catching up on lack of sleep from Schoolies. The rest of the day was quite relaxed and I got the opportunity to catch up with a few different people from home. Saturday evening we had the great chance to go up to the Harrison's for Dinner. Chris is the kind of person who's status on Facebook let's everybody know what he's cooking for dinner, the motto being 'Life's too short to eat bad food'. I concur. Stuffed Jalapeños, Coopers Pale Ale, Steak, Potatoes, homemade Pumpkin pie, and of course Shiraz to compliment the Steak. Oh, and don't forget the Port to go along with Dessert. The Harrison's know how to eat and drink, this I know. As if that wasn't enough they're having us over Tuesday night for Curried Kangaroo, our first kangaroo experience; edible one at least. Saturday night was late, just because they're getting old doesn't mean they don't know how to party. At about quarter past one we called it quits and made our way back down the road into our waiting beds.

Sunday, the dinner of the weekend. Sunday was a heaps good day, despite going to bed late the night before and waking up before eight it was still a good day. Sam, Michelle, Sandra, Graham, and myself made the drive down to Victor Harbor area along with five surf boards, all crammed inside Sam's retro van. Our first stop was Middleton and the waves were looking alright. Sam thought there would only be a slight breeze but it turned out to be a very windy day. After a few hours in the water we made it back onto shore and found we had drifted over half a kilometer, courtesy of a brutal side wind. I must also say that I'm not a pro surfer but I'd definitely go again. Our second beach was Waitpinga Point, one that's a bit more enclosed because of some cliffs on one side. The waves at Waitpinga were breaking much more smoothly and the rest of the water wasn't nearly as choppy so it made for better surfing. My upper back was feeling pretty stuffed and so I enjoyed the sun and took a lovely sunday afternoon nap on the beach. How do you end a good day in the water? You go to church sunday evening. YWAM had been invited to participate in the service at the Church of Christ in Victor Harbor. The church was not nearly full and I would say YWAM was half of the congregation, but there was a feeling of community and honesty in the building. Thank goodness Pablo's message was interesting because I was just about to call it quits from a tiring weekend. After the service we went next door for some food and fellowship but those of us who had gone surfing were really only half present. That pretty much wrapped up my lovely, fun, and busy weekend.

I guess we'll treat Monday as dessert. This morning was spent preparing for a team of Brazilians that are coming this weekend. They will be here for the month of December and are doing dance, music, and drama ministry at different places. This afternoon I managed to get the registration renewed for the Mazda with absolutely no issues, Praise the Lord. Now we just need to get a battery tomorrow, than we're off on wednesday. That about wraps up it. Who's doing the dishes?