Gold Coast Getaway

I'm taking my first Aussie holiday! I booked the flights today. I'm planning a trip to the Gold Coast from October 4th to 9th with one of my friends. Pretty bad that I've lived in Australia for a year and have not been further than a 2 hour drive away from my home but that's about to change. Also note the timing of when I'm leaving. We're looking forward to it. Just thought I'd let you all know.

Ouch continued...

Latest update isn't great.

I saw a knee specialist this morning and he's convinced the MRI is correct and my ACL is completely torn. Basically, that means surgery will be needed. I'll be back basically to square one after the surgery and out of sports from now till 6 months after the surgery. I need to check into insurance coverage for this. It also isn't out of the question to wait till I get home to Canada and get the surgery for free. Need to make some decisions on this. Another thing playing into this is that if I get the surgery now, I won't be able to make the trip to Uganda. Oh the joys!!!

Here I go again...

I wish this wasn’t the case, but it is. I wish I was past it already, but I’m not. I wish I hadn’t been put in the position in the first place, but I was. I wish I could deal with it alone, but I can’t. I’m being forced to think through my past due to some classes and assignments. In my counselling class, we’re talking about grief for a few weeks. Yea! After that we’re moving on to depression – easily done after enough grief! And I basically feel like the in-house expert on the topic. This all brings me to a point of concern in my life. A few years ago, I had Jean convinced that it would be a good idea to go on an Alaskan cruise. We didn’t tell a lot of people but we had thought it would be a good way to celebrate our tenth anniversary. Rather than being on that cruise with her, she’s now in heaven and I’m in the next best place – ok, maybe Australia isn’t quite that good, but it is a great place. Anyways, my tenth anniversary would be October 4th this year. I’m looking for somewhere to go during this time because it also happens to be a school holiday. I wish grief didn’t affect me anymore but that’s not the way grief works and I’m starting to deal with it all now again as the special date comes up. So I’ll put out the petition again. Please pray. God has always been faithful in the past and I know He will be again, but I could use a little help in this.

Happy Birthday!!!

“Happy Birthday Larry!” That’s been the major theme of the last three days for me. Due to APEC meetings and world leaders from 21 countries coming to Sydney, Friday was declared a state holiday. There were so many security measures put in place that half the Sydney population wouldn’t be able to get to work and many more would need twice the time and be subject to random searches if they ventured out (ok, not quite that bad, but you get the point…The last time APEC was hosted by Canada was before the attack on the trade center on Sept 11, and we had to pull troops out of Afghanistan to cover the requirements of military presence around the “Remote location” chosen for the meetings; so you can imagine the level of security after Sept 11 and in the heart of a major harbour city).

So what does that have to do with my birthday? Having a holiday provided a whole day to celebrate, so I did. Between three different groups of people suggesting various – and partially overlapping – ideas, I had to co-ordinate my time with my friends. I ended up going for breakfast with some, having some over for games and movies in the afternoon, and going out with some in the evening. Some friends were present at two of the three activities. Doing all this on Friday was great but also created some confusion because people assumed my birthday was Friday. Well, on Saturday, I went out after church with a few more people and was treated to another rousing rendition of the classic song and another chocolate cake. This time they had the date right. Now on Sunday, I’ve been blessed by a few more. It’s been great.

I was debating for the last week if I’d set anything up for my birthday – as is the custom around here; and decided that some of the people I would invite would set something up anyways if I didn’t, so I left it to them and they didn’t disappoint. They did have some help as I sent out a text message to a few people and updated my status on facebook to beg for attention. Then, adding to my efforts and all the confusion was an effort someone else made to make sure I wouldn’t be forgotten. Some people found out via email about this day and made sure they passed it on to others. The only problem is that in addition to the confusion from my Friday activities, some of them were told my birthday was Sunday. Oops. Whoever would have thought that my own sister – the one who basically figures any man she dates has to consider me his best friend before she’ll marry the guy – would forget my birthday? So it’s ended up being a birthweekend instead of a birthday. That’s ok sis, I won’t tell too many people who it was… And I’ll do what I can to make sure I remember the correct date for your birthday on February 6th. ;)

On to a different note, I ran the other day! Ok, it was only 5 steps (4 too many), and normally, they would hardly be called running, but for someone who recently damaged his knee and everything around it, spent two weeks on crutches, still doesn’t have the full range of motion in his knee, can’t sit with his leg in one position for more than 10 minutes, and is working at building strength back to normal, it’s a pretty big deal. Running isn’t really an option yet, but apparently cycling is really good for healing and strengthening knees so I’ve been doing quite a lot of that. The other day I got on my bike and started driving. I got to a point I thought would be a good halfway mark and turned around for the return trip – only to realize I was now going uphill and against wind! It was great! “Don’t push yourself to hard” kept resounding in my head and I kept saying “I don’t care! I’m sick of this problem and I’m doing everything I can to fix it!” After arriving home, I checked a map and found I had just put on 15 km. Many people wouldn’t do this in full health so I felt pretty good that I could do it with a bad knee. The amazing thing is that I wasn’t sore from the bike ride! It’s been raining a lot since then and I’ve been really busy, so I haven’t been able to do as much, but I did 10 km on the exercise bike yesterday. I’m hoping for good weather tomorrow so I can do the real thing again. It’s kind of like the whole Coke/Pepsi debate... why would I use an exercise bike when a real bike down a great trail is an option? Just like I could drink a Pepsi or I could go with the real thing. The copy-cat does something, but it’s just not the same.