New Form of Transportation

Imagine the following scene…

A man is riding his bicycle down a sidewalk; the trail starts heading downhill and he picks up speed. He continues his enjoyable, effortless ride down the hill, trying to build up as much momentum as possible for the next leg of the trip in which he will have to work hard to make it up the next hill before enjoying the ride down the other side. As he nears the bottom, he sees a large hole across the entire path – construction!!! They’ve taken out part of the sidewalk and are in the process of repairing it. He looks for any alternative to hitting the hole but sees none, so in a last ditch effort to avoid a serious mishap, he hits the brakes – hard. To his horror, the hand that’s used for the front brake in Canada is used for the back brake in Australia; and the hand that’s used for the back brake in Canada is used for the front brake in Australia. The front brake gets hit hard and the bike stops very suddenly, avoiding the hole. Unfortunately, the man does not achieve the same result. Having hit the front brake too hard, he launches himself into an aerial assault on the construction site. As he’s flying through the air, he realizes that he hasn’t finished his pilot’s training and is not familiar with completing a safe crash landing.

That same scene – or one very similar to it – flashed through my head as I took my new bicycle home and realized the brakes are operated differently out here. What should be the front brake was actually the back brake; and vice versa. Fortunately, I realized this as I was walking the bike to my car which I was using to carry it home; so before I took my first ride, to ensure that scene doesn’t become reality, I switched the brake cables to bring them in line with my Canadian standard of normal. Right hand, back brake; left hand, front break.

Where I’m living now, it should be an easy, and hopefully safe, ride to school and church so I decided to buy a bike so I can get the exercise and save the fuel used in driving my car. By my estimations, I need only take the bike 20 times and the fuel savings will have covered the cost of the bike! (it was second hand).

Classes start today but I don’t have a schedule yet so I’m not going. There have been some big problems with the enrolment process so all I know is that I don’t have any classes today and I’ll find out my schedule someday.

Thought for the day – if today was “Someday,” how busy would you be?

short update

So we’re in the first week of school now. It’s been a great week but none of us knows our schedule yet. This week is the same for everyone (almost) so it doesn’t matter too much but for those of us who have a class tonight, this could be a problem. There’s been a problem with the enrolment process and this has been a bit of an issue.

That aside, this week has been great! We’ve been hearing from many of the church people and it’s been great. Today was the day for Christine Cain to input into our lives. It is such a privilege to hear these people who speak internationally – and I get to hear them regularly!

Living in my house here has been great! It’s so much different than the apartment I was in previously. We’re having a house meeting as I write this. Being a good man, I can multi-task so I’m fine doing this while we discuss other things. At this point, we’re in the process of planning our meals for the next month. We’re each planning to make dinner (or “supper” for my fellow Canadians) for everyone in the house one day of the week. Looks like it should work out well. We’ve got some furniture on order from someone who’s moving away. Hopefully we’ll be getting that tomorrow. We’re getting tired of not having a place other than the floor and kitchen chairs to sit on. This will also be important when I start my connect group in a couple of weeks.

Well, I don’t know what else to say, and I need to eat some food yet before going to class tonight but I thought I needed to put something on my blog.

Layover Pictures

I've been looking forward to this day for almost a year. The day I told my sister-in-law I was planning to go to Hillsong, I also said I wanted her at the airport so I could return the favour of handing over my winter jacket (with a big smile) as I left for a warm place. She was a really good sport.





If anyone has trouble with jealousy, look at this picture and stop here. This one shows just how normal Hawaii actually is.








After over a month of cold in the Canadian Prairies, this was a very welcome site.








My first morning. I had to pass quite a bit of time before I actually got to see this sunrise on Waikiki Beach.








After spending a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center, I realized dance is a major part of their culture. This is a small representation of what I saw.







I rented a Moped (also called a Scooter in some places) and went for a drive around the island. It was quite a weird feeling driving along the freeways with a chainsaw motor on wheels. I was told it had a top speed of 40 mph so I assumed with my size it would be about 35mph. On level surfaces, that was true but most of the road was not level so I had a top speed anywhere between 25 and 45mph depending on how steep the hill was and whether I was driving up or down. Fortunately, most of the roads have a speed limit of 35mph. This was probably my best day as I was outside seeing the real island - which I would say is much better than the tourist locations!




This was just another rock sticking out of the ocean but it looked neat.







Before my trip, I asked some friends who have lived in Hawaii what I should do and they both said "Go to the Northern Beaches." In case anyone is planning a trip to Honolulu sometime, I agree with them. Waikiki Beach is the most popular beach on the island and apparently is the most well known beach in the world. If you like to watch every step to make sure you don't walk all over someone; if you like to be able to get canoe or sailboat rides or rent surfboards and get some lessons along with the other thousand people in the water; if you like to have 500 hotels and 3000 stores within walking distance; if you don't mind a beach where there's more rock than sand under the water and what sand there is is course and was imported from another state; then Waikiki is the man-made beach for you. However, if you would rather have a enough room to lay out your beach towel without folding up the edges and enough room in the water to swing your arms in a swimming motion; if you want nice sand that's easy on your feet and a surface under the water that you can safely walk on; if you don't mind giving up some of the shops and hotels within walking distance and are willing to carry your surfboard a couple hundred feet from the shop instead of 30 feet along the beach; then the place for you is somewhere outside Honolulu. This picture of Sandy Beach was taken in the middle of the day and is typical of the beaches outside of tourist central. When I did the trip around the island, I finally saw why Hawaii is considered a Paradise. The man-made beauty of the tourist areas does not compare to the God-made beauty of the rest of the island.


Here's one of the best places in the world for experienced surfers. "Pipeline" is where a lot of international surfing competitions are held. Warning: do not enter the water unless you are a very strong swimmer and understand the currents. When the waves got to shore, they were still big enough that someone could be standing on the sand completely out of the water and be completely covered by a wave coming in.




Now after I said Waikiki (great as it is) is nowhere near the best beach on the island, this sunset photo was taken there; so judge for yourselves whether this is a beautiful place.





What you see centered in this picture is the top of the USS Arizona. This ship was the site of the largest number of soldiers lost in a single act in US war history. It was sunk by an armour piercing bomb dropped from 10,000 feet. The bomb went through a couple layers of the ship and exploded inside - right next to the ship's supply of ammunition. about 150 feet of the ship was completely separated by the explosion and another piece weighing a couple thousand pounds was lifted far into the air and caused a second explosion when it landed back on the ship. It took about 2 seconds to kill almost 1,200 men (almost half of the total losses in Pearl Harbour) on the ship. In the background, you can see white markers that show the place where some the other ships were sunk. remarkably, most of the ships were actually recovered, fixed, and put back in service; some in less than a year.



On a monument for the USS Arizona was a list of people who died on the ship. I couldn't get the whole list on the picture. I did not get a lot of good pictures of Pearl Harbour, but it was great to be there. It is very sobering to see the place of such terrible destruction at the hands of men and to hear, from some of the people who lived through it, what it was like and what happened.

Miss me yet?

I think this is the longest time between posts since I started the blog. Sorry. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity – just not the type of activity that makes for interesting blogging. Here’s the summary. Got up in morning and brought niece to school bus, went for lunch with friend(s), went to friend’s place for supper, out for evening, got home sometime after midnight – no point adjusting to Manitoba time since I’ll be back on Sydney time soon. I really enjoyed my time in Canada and for that I can thank the people there. Good as some of my activities were, what really made it good was seeing all of you. I didn’t get a chance to see quite everyone I wanted to see but hopefully you can understand. Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for…

“The sun is shining, I'm on the beach, its 33 degrees Celsius and I just got off the surf board after riding a 20 foot wave in.” I wrote this a few months ago in an email to someone who had expressed some jealousy over me going to Australia. I followed that by a sentence clearly stating that it was not true. This time, it’s much closer to the truth. I’m in my hotel room; the temperature was around 30, and I did ride a wave in on a surf board. I tried catching a bus to a certain bay to do some snorkelling but the bus didn’t show up so I had to find other things to do. Surfing was one of them. There are a few companies on the beach renting out boards and providing lessons. One of them had promised me the other day that if I took a lesson, they would get me wet and tired. Very true!!! And I even made it up on the board a couple of times to ride the waves. The tiring part is swimming out to sea against the waves.

I’m now in Hawaii and making the best of my layover on the way to Sydney. Clouds rolled in around noon my first day here so I decided it was not the best day for the beach. A little colour would be a good thing on my skin before I get back to the powerful UV rays of the Australian sun so there’s actually a good reason for spending some time on the beach. Oh well, I just went off to the next place and enjoyed the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Within the park are a number of different centers for different Polynesian countries. Each of them has some type of show or interactive display – very interesting. I only ended up on stage once as a “volunteer” after being singled out together with a bunch of other men and asked to come up. Until now, there have been stories of me dancing but no evidence – strange what you do when you don’t know anyone around.

Today I went out to Pearl Harbour and then got back to my hotel early enough that I thought I’d be able to go scuba diving. I checked into it a bit yesterday and thought the shuttle left at 2:30 so I should have an hour to spare. Well, when I called to book, I found out they actually left at 11:15. And what’s more, I can’t go tomorrow because I’m flying out Saturday morning and I can’t fly within 18 hours of diving!!! So instead of going scuba diving, I’ve rented a moped and plan to see if I can find my way around the island. Could get interesting since I don’t have a good map and my vehicle has a top speed of 40mph; but I’ve been told it’s easy (whatever that means coming from people who have done it a hundred times) so I guess I’ll soon find out.

One more day and then I get in the plane for a bunch of hours and head back to Sydney. If any of you are still jealous of me having this layover here, take a little bit of comfort in the fact that I have to leave my hotel at 5:15AM. It’s getting late and I need to get some sleep before my ride tomorrow but now you have something new to read. Hope you enjoyed. I plan to get some pictures up once I'm back in Australia.

Freakiest Person

I thought it interesting that someone would call me the freakiest person they know (see comments on previous post). What a compliment !!! ;-) I’m sure the comment came with a big smile on your face!

So I went back over my last few entries and you may have a point.

Questioning Veggie Tales title
Sticking out a coloured tongue with some children for a picture
Taking a picture of my food at A&W
Taking a picture of my brother after a fall on the ski hill
…And my sister in law cleaning up a messy table…
Editing a picture to convince my brother I had bought a snowmobile
Showing off a dead Christmas tree
Telling an amusing story of the L.A. airport…

And that’s just part of my Christmas break

Just like I was the one who brought the Veggie Tales issue to light, someone out there has now brought to light my freakiness…the only problem is that no name was left with the comment so I can only guess your identity (hint, hint). I love your comment though.

Deep Question

I’ve been asking quite a few people a question for the last while and I wasn’t able to get a satisfactory answer. “Why are the two big stars of Veggie Tales, actually fruit?” Now I’ve run into a glitch with the question. I asked the question of someone and it led to a discussion on the different characters. I now realize I’ve been asking the wrong question the whole time. The question should be more like “Why are only a few of the characters actually vegetables?” Now I don’t claim to be a Veggie Tales expert (I’ve actually never seen an entire show but that’s changing since I’m watching a Veggie Tales show with my nephew as I write this) but I went online and looked for a list of the characters. I don’t think I was able to find a complete list, but here’s the result of what I did find. I’ve compiled a list which includes the botanical classification.

Bob the Tomato Fruit
Larry the Cucumber Fruit
Junior Asparagus Herb
Laura Jay Carrot Vegetable
Percy Pea Grain
Jimmy and Jerry Gourd Fruit
Madame Blueberry Fruit
Nebby K Nezzer (zucchini) Fruit
Mr Lunt (gourd) Fruit
The French Peas Grain
Pa Grape Fruit
Petunia Rhubarb Herb
Ann Scallion (onion) Vegetable
??? Lemon Fruit
??? Bean Grain

Now, like I said, I don’t think this is a complete list (actually I’m sure it’s not a complete list) but it’s the extent of what I found; but from the list above, you should be able to see why I’m asking the question. Now it’s your turn. If anyone has an answer for me, please answer for me why Veggie Tales has more characters that are not vegetables than those that are vegetables. (In case anyone is still wondering; yes, this is an attempt at getting more feedback on my blog).

Birthday Party

So I was invited to a birthday party and had a great time influencing some young boys in the finer details of life – namely, what to do with coloured icing on a cake. Here’s the result.

New Year's Eve

I feel like I’m missing something special in the New Year’s celebrations in Sydney. I’ve already missed the Christmas celebrations with Hillsong and now this. I even watched a bit of TV and saw parts of the celebrations from other cities around the world – but they missed my home away from home. My New Years Eve will be spent in bed laying some groundwork on my recovery from a severe head cold that has had me in rough shape for a couple days now. I came back to Saskatchewan yesterday after a great time in Alberta but I insisted my brother drive because it would not be safe for me to do so. Upon my arrival home, my brother and sister carried my luggage to my room while went to crash in bed.

I managed to make my way to church this morning to share but it was a struggle. I was determined that I would not be kept away from sharing what God has given me to say and I know it impacted some people. Only God knows the extent of the work He’s doing through my life but I pray that it will continue to increase.

While in Alberta, I was able to spend some quality time with some great friends. My brother and I enjoyed phenomenal hospitality spending the nights and quite a bit of our waking time with long time friends of mine who happen to be husband and wife. I also really enjoyed catching up with another friend I hadn’t seen in 4 ½ years. After a short night, my two brothers joined me in hitting the slopes of the great Canadian Rockies. It really was a great trip. Here are some of the pictures…



Got some real A&W food – unlike the wannabe restauraunt we were at in Sydney







Upon arrival in Alberta – we caught the beginning of a snow storm in the last half hour of driving. Ended up with about 20 cm of fresh powder which was still partially there when I got to the slopes two days later.





Traffic on our way to the ski hill. Also note, if you climb to the highest point in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney, then climb half that distance further, that’s the same elevation as I was when I took this picture. I’m basically at the base of the Rockies.







My brothers and me ready for our first run down the mountain.






And the second run...








It was truly a great mountaintop experience.







If you zoom in on this picture, you can possibly see the distances to various locations. Sydney is almost four times as far as the North Pole, I guess I travelled a long ways to get here. (sorry about the picture quality when you zoom. I need to keep the file size small for dial up internet service.)




Nice finishing touch on the way from the ski hill.

Christmas time

My time speaking in church went great! Both Saturday night and Sunday morning I felt there was something specific that someone there needed to hear so I said it. I shared 4 times and each time was different; and each time, numerous people said it had impacted them greatly and prompted them to changes in their own lives. It is so encouraging to know that God is speaking through me when I just let Him!

After sharing on Sunday morning, I left for Saskatchewan. 700 miles, one family gathering, and one Boxing Day shopping trip later I’m now ready to spend another 7 hours or so driving out to see friends in another province. I’m planning to head out early tomorrow morning and get a couple days in with a few friends and a day of skiing in the great Canadian Rockies before driving back to Saskatchewan to share in a church here, take in an extended family gathering and spend a few more days with immediate family and some friends.

I joined my brother and his wife and children for their family Christmas celebration. We had a great time of reading a Christmas story, having a good meal, and exchanging gifts and playing with them.




Before the meal






During the meal, after one of the children took a solid swipe at a cup half full of pop and sent it sprawling over the table. I was so proud of my sister in law laughing over this as we cleaned up the mess – ok so she cleaned up most of it while I stood around taking pictures.


I also ended up having some fun with a new toy my nephew received. The fun came in the form of some photo editing, an email, and a later confession to my brother in Saskatchewan that I had not actually bought a snowmobile. This picture is actually of a toy snowmobile about 2 inches long. The background is an original picture of an actual house. I thought it had worked out quite well considering I was on a very tight schedule with it and it was my first time doing something so detailed.




The evening sky in the Prairies as I drove from Manitoba to Saskatchewan.

First week at home

I just have to tell this story… Over the last month or so, I’ve been trying to decide if I needed to share in church what God has done in my life in the last couple of years. (for those of you reading this who don’t know my life over the last few years; I had an incredible marriage with a phenomenal woman and just before our fifth anniversary in 2002, she was diagnosed with cancer. She died from it in May 2005. God has done some incredible things in my life during the time of sickness and following her death) As I was thinking and praying about this, I felt strongly that God wanted me to share in the church I grew up in so I made contact with the pastor there and arranged to speak there for a few minutes. I also wanted to share in my current church but wasn’t sure if that desire was only mine or if it too came from the Lord; so I said to Him that I was very willing but considering my lack of confidence that the desire was from Him, I would not pursue it so if He wanted me up, he should get the pastor to ask me for this and I would consider that confirmation. My pastor spends a lot of time in prayer every day and gets a lot of direction as a result of this. So my first weekend at home, I was in the choir (which was great!!!) and he saw me there. As we walked off stage after the worship time and went out the back door, my pastor was there waiting for me. He had left the service that was continuing at the time to come ask me to share next weekend! Can’t tell me God doesn’t speak to people today!
I’ve been enjoying time with friends and family. So far every evening has been busy with something. One friend asked if I had been running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off and I said I had been hoping for that but it hadn’t been the case. Side-note: In case anyone from around home is reading this while I’m at home, I am quite busy at this point but that’s the reason I came home. Please call me at my brother’s place (I will not post his name or phone number on this site for privacy reasons but if you don’t have it, leave me a message with your email address or phone number – include in your message a request for me to not publish the message – and I will send you his number or call you) to set up a time to spend time together. No matter how busy I get, my whole purpose in coming home for Christmas is to spend time with people so I want to make it very clear that I want to have something up all the time. I can relax after my time a home.) I’ve spent some time working on an ice rink here and have been enjoying the fresh air outside. It’s been great weather and I feel like I’m starting to adjust to winter again. I spent an hour playing badminton with a friend and it was great just to be so active. Unfortunately, I’m not in the greatest shape of my life and I’m feeling the results of an intense activity that I’m not used to. We’re hoping to get another round or two in yet before I head back to Australia.
I’m planning to head out to another province in a few days so my travel begins again; this time with a ten hour drive starting after sharing in two services Sunday morning. I’ve already bought the energy drink to make sure I’m awake for the driving time. I have a gathering to be at the next day.
I’ve had some contact with some friends who are staying in Sydney over Christmas and I miss them and feel like I’m missing out on things there but I’m enjoying where I’m at too.