Twas the night before Christmas...

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not in my quiet house
They would have liked to, but couldn’t get up
With tummies filled on mighty fine grub

They came for a trial, came for a test
And I delivered them my very best
With apply pie and ice cream and all of the rest
I filled up their stomachs – intestines to oesophagus

(…ok, maybe that line is a bit quirky – but then again, what else have you come to expect from me??? J)

Was in the big store and shopping for food
I saw the red apples, and then I sure knew
I’d make a creation and make it look good
And if I was lucky, It’d taste good too

So off to the teller, or was it cashier?
Oh well, whatever, the time drawing near
I raced to my home and took out the stuff
And started my baking, at times looking rough

But on went the oven and in went the pie
In 45 minutes, appealing to eye
It looked oh so good, and tasted but great
I had to find company before was too late

So off to the next place, where thousands would be
I’d look for a friend, or maybe two or three
My search was successful, the place was my church
And after the service, well coffee of course

Invited them over, they almost declined
Then heard of creation, it sounded too fine
They came from anear, they came from afar
Alas, they came, in two separate cars


Well, this hardly seems like a great place to end the poem, but I need to rush off to the next place so I’ll call it the end J

Thought I’d leave you with a picture of the apple pie I made yesterday. Today, it’s off to the Blue Mountains to join a family for Christmas.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a great year to come.

Week off...

Oh how time flies. I had some things to post here but now that I look back, I see I didn’t so here goes.

Man’s version – We had a pretty severe hail storm, I just came home from a week away, had my last physio the day I left for the trip, and plans for Africa are coming along.

Woman’s version – hang on, how can I, a man, give a woman’s version? Since there’s no woman holding that significant part in my life right now, I’ll give it a try. – I was talking with a friend of mine who has a friend who was like really scared the other day. Apparently someone looked out the window and saw the wind speeding up and rain starting. It was only a few minutes before the wind was falling sideways and something really noisy was on the roof of the house. So it turns out that what was on the roof of the house was some really big pieces of ice. It looked a lot like hail. Actually, it was hail, and lots of it. It was coming down really hard and fast. It was so scary!!! I heard from someone that she had taken the rest of her family away from the window because it could break. In only a few minutes the ground was completely covered with hail. You know Penne, well, she was so lucky! She had just bought a new car and was driving it home when the hail came. She had a long drive to pick up the car and if she had come home one hour earlier, her new car would have been all dented up from the hail. Oh, I was so embarrassed! I was telling a friend of mine about the storm and she responded to my email with a comment about the “hair storm”. How could I make that mistake – to call it a hair storm instead of a hail storm. It was so embarrassing! It was so much worse than a bad hair day!!!. So I took some pictures during the storm and need to put at least one up here. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I still have a long way to go before a thousand words so maybe this picture isn’t going to be worth as much. Anyway, The storm was pretty bad. There were many cars and homes damaged by it. Trees were uprooted and power lines were taken down. Quite a few roads were closed because trees had fallen across them. Some people were without power for a day and one man died when part of a building collapsed on him. Church was emptier that evening (it happened on a Sunday afternoon) because a lot of people couldn’t make it out of their communities.

On to my week off; not much to say except that it was really good to get away by myself for a few days. I took a lot of time to process things running through my head, spent quite a lot of time on the beaches close to where I was staying, and generally relaxed. On my way out to the place I was staying, I stopped for physio and was happy to hear them say I don’t need to come back; and that everything from here on is up to me

I had a little scare with my plans for Africa when I heard about a dangerous virus outbreak in one country I’m planning to go to. It’s a really serious virus. Thankfully, it’s quite a long distance from where I plan to be; and thankfully for the lives of many people, they say it has been contained. If it was running through the places I plan to go, I’d have to change my plans but it’s far enough away that I shouldn’t need to worry. I also saw a weather report for another area I plan to go to and immediately wondered why I’d want to spend time there right now because their temperature was running almost 15 degrees warmer than where I’m at right now. Warm is nice. Hot can even be enjoyable. But when it gets to the point of walking into a sauna to cool off, it’s a bit extreme. I still have some Canadian blood left in me.

Well, I think that’s about it for now cause it’s past midnight and I’m sure I’ve already lost half of you reading this because it’s so long – but then again, if you’re reading this, either I haven’t lost you, or you’re one of the people who reads the beginning and end and tries to fill in the middle section from that. Hey, don’t laugh; between that and watching the movie, this strategy worked great for me in English classes through high school and into university. Not that I would recommend it or anything but… I’ll leave you with just a couple of pictures to highlight my last couple of weeks.

Ha, as I was looking through my pictures deciding which ones to put up, I saw some from a couple weeks ago when I went bowling with connect group. Ten pin bowling can be quite a challenge with a bad knee less than two months after surgery. Only one of the people (besides myself) seemed genuinely happy for me to win. Maybe their egos took a hit loosing to someone they’ve been calling cripple, gimpy, tripod, hoppy, and a myriad of other names.


This was my backyard midway through the hail portion of the storm. I actually say this was the first time I've seen a storm in Australia that compares to the regular summer storms on the Canadian Prairies. One other storm came close but I wasn't in the middle of it.






Here's one of the beaches I was within walking distance of last week. This was the busier section. I had to be really careful going in the water because of safety concerns with so few people around in case of trouble. I also found out that there was a shark attack on this beach one of the days I was there. Missed it by a couple hours (whew). Other life forms I saw included pelicans, blue bottles (very much like a jellyfish and cause much pain if you get stung) a sting ray (was small and dead and washed up on shore) and a few dolphins. Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of good photos, but had a good time.

Ready, Aim, Fire

“We’ll be using the shotgun approach today.” The doctor could have said this yesterday. In preparation for my trip to Africa, I have to see a doctor and get poked a number of times. Yesterday was the first visit and with each required immunization, she asked if I’d had that one before or within the last x number of years and to each question, the answer was the same. “No. No. No.” Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Typhoid, Malaria, Measles, Mumps, Yellow Fever, Rabbis, Tetanise, Chicken Pox, Turkey Flu, and the Wild Bird Variety, Influenza, Whooping Cough, a running nose and The Common Cold, Stiff neck, stiff upper lip, and generally body soreness that could come from a solid workout, an hour of sport (not counting injuries) or an number of sicknesses – especially if combined with a fever, which itself could be mistaken for simply being hot from the hotter climate, and the list goes on…

In case you haven’t figured this out yet, I did not get that many immunizations, but both arms were used and the doctor told me one leg would be too but the nurse disagreed and since the nurse had the needle, she won. Thank you. I don’t need two sore arms and two sore legs. It’s nice to have one limb without any holdback. My plans for the Africa trip are all coming together and looking good. I’ve now added on a few days in Thailand since I’m there anyways. After all, just like Hawaii last January, how often will I end up there as a result of saving money on a flight? May as well take advantage of it. Anyone know the best places to go and things to see around Bangkok?

Well, speaking of travelling, one of my friends is moving home to South Africa today. I’m scheduled to take him to the airport, and in typical South African fashion, he’s running late. Thankfully, in untypical South African fashion, he told me. I was to leave 1 ¾ hours ago to pick him up and right now I’m waiting for him to stop by my place… Ah, I’ve learned by now that when a South African say’s “I’ll be there just now” it means anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 months, and a schedule is nothing more than a general guideline – kind of like the speed limit in Alberta, Ontario, or Quebec (actually any part of Canada for that matter) or the lanes on the roads in Australia – a select few people stick within them and for the rest, well that’s where defensive driving comes in.

Africa

For those of you not on facebook, I’ve got some surprising news to share… On Friday, one of the pastors at Hillsong (Chris Mendez) contacted me to see if I’m up for a trip to Africa. If the flights he was booked on hadn’t been full, it would have taken less than 2 hours from the time I first heard about it to the time it was all set up. As it turned out, it took a few hours extra to find reasonable flight options so it was finalized Saturday morning. So the plan now is to leave Sydney on Jan 10, travelling through Bangkok. Arriving in Uganda on the 11th, I’ll spend the next 10 days or so seeing Watoto and Compassion sites there and in Kenya. It will be an action packed time and as Chris put it “We’ll be doing a lot of things tired.” I’m also doing what I can to see a girl I’ve been sponsoring in Uganda for a number of years.

I’m shocked, excited, in awe, and thankful all at the same time. I was hoping to go to Uganda and had to cancel my plans because of knee trouble and now I have another opportunity that was not expected. The other trip would have been a work project mixed with a bit of other stuff with people I’ve never met before and this one will be seeing the bigger picture of a couple of great organizations having a significant impact on extremely poor countries while travelling with one of my pastors and friends. In a lot of ways, it’s almost as though I gave up something because of a physical injury and have been blessed with a better opportunity. Not that the other one was bad or lacking in any way, but this one somehow seems like it will have a bigger impact on my life. God is good.

Going to the Opera

No, I haven't changed my taste in music... I just have to see a performance in one of the worlds most famous landmarks and greatest performance centres while the chance is still here. Who knows how long I'll be in Sydney so I'm doing it now. I just booked tickets to go see Handel's Messiah. There's 13 of us going. Should be great!