Arrival home

As expected, my time here has been very busy so far. Sleep has been a bit scarce for someone getting over jet lag.

I got my car out the first day I was here and had to do some coaxing to get it running but after a good boost for the battery, it’s working well. My first time driving it I hit the wipers instead of the signal switch for three of the first four corners (the switch is on the other side of the steering wheel in case you don’t know this). I’ve also hit the door with my hand a couple of times as I reached to change gears. Fortunately I haven’t forgotten how to drive 5 speed standard and staying on the right side of the road feels very natural. I guess 15 years of driving on the right side doesn’t leave you in a few short months. I’ve also been able to drive on slippery roads and in blowing snow and snow drifts. Oh, the joys of winter.

I’ve been to my former workplace to see some great people there. They were happy to see me. I couldn’t resist singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” as I walked in the door.

I had a chance to stop by one of the best local restaurants and have also had some “squeaky cheese” (cheese curds) from the best cheese factory around, Reese’s Pieces, Cheese Whiz, ketchup chips, and farmer sausage. I’m still looking forward to the real A&W and a few slices of the best pizza in the world (http://www.vernspizza.com/) home of the legendary “Single slice is a meal”

Last night I was a choir practice for my church and had a great time there. One of the people was so surprised and excited to see me that she almost fell over (ok, I think it was basically surprise on this one)...I'm looking forward to being in church and singing in my home choir this weekend.

Below are some pictures of my trip and arrival home.




One of the sunsets on the way home.






The first winter clothing I saw when I got home was “earmuffs.” I use the term loosely to describe something that was made for me out of a plastic ice cream pail, some old rags, a bit of tape, and some cardboard. I chose to put up a picture in the real winter clothes I wore the next day as I went with my niece to her school bus stop. This walk also helped me realize I’ve started adjusting to the Australian climate because it was only 5 below zero (very warm for December in Manitoba) but I felt cold in only a few minutes.








On my way out of the airport, I saw this polar bear with a pine tree lit up behind it. It was a welcome site.





There was a Christmas tree in my room when I got home. My brother couldn’t resist when he saw it and his daughter insisted it needed to have an angel on the top (which didn’t make it into the picture because of size) even though the tree is dead. If you look closely, you can see on the wall is a picture of some of my friends in Australia. My brother and sister-in-law printed two pictures off my blog and put them on the wall. They help me remember where I’m away from for the next few weeks.










This Coca Cola bottle was also in my room. Anyone who knows my brother will know this was a real sacrifice considering his undivided devotion to the drink that claims to be something of competition for this great beverage icon.



Here’s my car on the first morning I could drive it. Yes this is my car, unlike a previous post regarding a car in Australia. But also remember, on that other post I didn’t say the car in the picture was mine, that was just assumed by some people. This picture actually is of my car in Canada. It’s so great to get the snow off a car before driving it!

Travel's done

Well, the day is done. I got up 37 hours ago, looked at a house which I may be moving into when I get back to Sydney, finished packing, said goodbye to some friends, and started my travels. This time around I got smart and took a sleeping pill on the plane and managed to get over 4 hours of sleep during the 14 hour flight from Sydney to L.A. That’s double the sleep I got travelling to Sydney!!! I am getting tired now though (4 hours in the last 37 is a bit short).

So on my arrival at the airport, I went through security – no problems, went through customs – no problems, went through secondary security because I was flying to USA – no problem. I arrived in L.A. and had to join everyone else going through US customs although I was only flying through. At this point I wondered why I had gone through customs in Sydney… but whatever. As I approached the customs desk, I saw a sign promising a friendly welcome, courteous treatment, fair treatment, etc. Now I know what you’re all expecting so I have to be honest. No problem at customs. They followed through with the pledge on the sign. After this, I had to get my luggage and re-check it even though I was flying through on the same carrier (didn’t have to do this on the way to Sydney) and follow directions to the area for continuing passengers. I followed the directions through a door, up an elevator, and on to what I hoped was the right side of security. At this point I was told I needed to go down the escalator to the back of the line that apparently started there (where I had just been sent from). When I explained that another airport agent had sent me this way together with some other people he was barking at (yes barking) He very sharply interrupted and said “And I’m telling you to go down there!” Maybe I’m wrong here but communication issues (different directions coming from different employees in the same area) ??? Courtesy issues??? A friendly welcome??? I guess the pledge on the sign doesn’t apply to airport personnel, only to customs officials. Now as I think back, if this employee was the only American exposure I’d have had, I can definitely see why people don’t like Americans! Fortunately, I’ve had many more experiences with Americans and I find this man to be the exception and I still like the people of that great nation. So I went outside and joined all the people coming in off the street in going through security again – no problems. I now had to wonder not only about going through customs twice and security twice, but now security three times – for the same trip. Again, maybe it’s just me, but if I have no banned substances the first time through security, or the second time, and I have no opportunity to get banned substances because I’ve been inside a controlled area the whole time, will I have banned substances the third time? It would be so much easier to just let continuing passengers through the hallway past security once clearing customs one time. But I guess that would cut down the number of employees, so it would put people out of work and potentially lower ticket prices; and it would save an hour or two for every passenger making this flight. Wouldn’t want to increase those efficiencies! Lesson for the day; if you’re doing an international flight with a layover in Los Angeles, make sure you have at least two hours extra to clear customs and airport security – even if you’ve already cleared those places once, twice, or more in the same trip. Maybe one day the people at that airport will learn from McDonalds that a burger is better if it’s only fried once. On to Denver…

“Attention please, passengers on United flight 6648 to Winnipeg. We seem to have a problem with the booking on this flight and as a result are looking for two volunteers to come forward and give up their seat on tonight’s flight. In return, we will book you on a flight the same time tomorrow or you can choose to fly through Chicago on an earlier flight tomorrow. We will also put you up in a hotel for the night, provided you with a good dinner and breakfast, and give you your choice of a free round trip to any North American United destination or US$600 towards another United flight.” Upon hearing this, I decided to volunteer myself. I talked with the agent and called home to confirm my ride from the airport hadn’t left home yet, and then was told “We’ll tell you either way” “what do you mean ‘either way’?” I thought, “You asked for a volunteer and here I am. Now you’re changing your mind?” So I waited until everyone else had boarded the plane and my luggage had been removed. They then told the other volunteer and me that we could board the plane after all (I think there were some other no-show’s) so I had to call home and tell the people to come pick me up from the Winnipeg airport after all. “Go ahead and call home. You’ve got 4 minutes till departure” I had to laugh at this one. They do all this last minute stuff that I volunteer for and then tell me I’ve got four minutes or the plane will leave without me because I offered to help them out. I laugh even now as I write this! They wouldn’t actually have left without me. They knew what I was doing and were ok with it…and my luggage did make it back onto the airplane!

“As your crew about United flight 6648, we would like to thank you for flying United; and let us be the first to welcome you to Winnipeg…you can pick up your luggage after passing through customs...” And one last time I had the privilege of answering questions for official with the authority to send me home (oops, that’s were I am now) detain me, do the wonderful searches that people are concerned about, question me endlessly about where I’ve been, how long I’ve been gone, why I was there, how old I am, what my shoe size is, when the last time is I used the – you get the picture. And one last time, I was asked no more than half a dozen questions before the agent decided that I’m a safe and honest law abiding person; and welcomed me through the gate.

What awaited me on the other side of the door were some very excited people. I heard from a third party (who shall remain anonymous for the time) that some of the people there were almost (or maybe completely) jumping for joy when they saw me waiting for my luggage before I could go through the doors to meet them. Hugs all around and I’m home with family. It’s great to be loved.

I heard my niece (who’s house I’m staying at) was in tears earlier tonight that I wasn’t here yet so I need to make sure I’m up in the morning before she heads off to school. Based on my body’s sleep schedule from Sydney, with the time change, I should be going to bed soon and getting up around 2 in the afternoon. She leaves for school closer to 8:30 in the morning so I’ll be getting up early. Need to get some sleep.

I’ll try to get some pictures up in the next couple of days too.

Home time

I can hardly believe this time has come already. It really feels like I just got here but it's time to come home for Christmas. Last night I went to one last Christmas party after packing most of my stuff. Today I go to look at a couple of houses with the hopes of finding one to live in when I get back here. The plan is that the people I'll be living together with will move in January and they will take my stuff from the apartment I'm in to the house so that means I need to have everything packed and ready for them to move it. So in the next three hours, I need to seen those houses, possibly submit an application to lease, finish packing (almost done) and get ready for the flight home.

I will try to keep this blog updated over Christmas but it may not be quite as regular as it has been till now. Keep watching as I have some exciting plans in the next couple of months. I'm scheduled to be back in Sydney on January 28th and life back here will start with a bang so watch for the updates. I'll see many of you in the next few days.

ps. I'm singing in the choir at Southland this weekend so if you want to see me from a distance, come to any of the services this coming weekend (Sat 5 and 7PM and Sun 9 and 11AM).

See you soon!

More Leisure Activities

After a short night and an early morning to bring classmates to the airport, I found a good place to relax. This is what a typical beach looks like midweek. I have not yet seen what it looks like on the weekend but I gained a new understanding of the beach culture in this country.




We heard there was a Walmart and an A&W close to here so some of us went on a hunt. We found the Walmart (Called “The Big W” in Australia) and a place that called itself A&W, using the same logo as the real restaurant and selling the same Root Beer (in a can) but having nothing else same - or even similar. I can’t help but wonder about trademark infringements on this but ???. The food was good after getting over the disappointment of it not being what we expected.


After some shopping and lunch, we went off to a wildlife park. We saw a ton of brightly coloured birds, some reptiles, penguins, Tasmanian devils, Wallabies, Kangaroos, Koala Bears, a 15 foot Crocodile, and a bunch of other animals.




Yes, I got a chance to pet a kangaroo. Sorry to disappoint some of you, they are not big enough to ride so I stopped at petting them. The picture is actually of me petting a Wallaby.








These bats have bodies about the size of a household cat. We saw one of these in the city the other day too.







Koala Bear – this is not a teddy. We got to pet one of these too.












It may be cute, but it’s still a bear; and we witnessed two males duelling out a short territorial battle just before I took this picture - yes, I took it myself; one hand on the bear and the other holding the camera.

It’s about time for another update. I’m finished classes and exams; and as the previous post mentioned, am making plans for Christmas time. Below are some pictures of my happenings in the last while.


Thanksgiving just doesn’t come often enough so, as you may recall, I went to two Canadian thanksgiving parties; and I’ve now done the same for our lovely neighbours to the south. Here’s a picture of one of the groups. In case anyone’s interested, two of the people in this picture are pure bred Americans, one has dual Canadian/American citizenship, one is South African, and the rest are pure Canadians.



The Frontline (25 to 35 years old) group went on a harbour cruise. We had a great time with a few hundred people, mostly from the church and mostly non college students. There was a lot of noise, loud music, a dance floor, and generally a good time as we sailed around the Sydney harbour for 4 hours. Here’s a shot of some friends having a great time.



One of the married couples was taking a picture and somehow I ended up in it. According to their blog (http://ryamy.blogspot.com/) I was being thrown overboard at the time but that’s nothing more than wish-full thinking. They did manage to get some better photos and also had a chance at a dance later. And speaking of dancing…since I know my family’s ears are itching to hear about this…ahh, if your ears really are itching, the itch won’t be soothed by anything I can say.

Another great view of the Opera House – I figure if this is one of the most recognized buildings in the world and I see it on a regular basis, I’d better have a few pictures of it on my blog.






We had a great graduation dinner at a high end restaraunt. Here’s me with one of my circles of friends at the dinner.







Hillsong Men’s weekly meetings have wrapped up for the year so we had some special activities on the last day. One of them was a mechanical bucking bull. As you can see, there were safety precautions taken. No one got seriously hurt but the longest anyone stayed on the thing was about 40 seconds, second place was around the 20 second mark.



No pictures of this, but I just got home from the golf course. Ryan (see man in couple’s picture above) and I left at 7 this morning and enjoyed a somewhat cool morning that turned into a beautiful summer day. We were warned at the beginning that if we encountered the snake on the 13th or 14th hole, we should not approach it. We should not try to get it to move (I assume this includes if our balls had gone close to it), and we would be ok. We had a great time and look forward to doing it again. We're also working on a few other people we know will enjoy golf once they try it.

Well, that’s about it right now. I’m expecting a great week here yet before I come home to see you in Canada! I know you’re expecting me to have bit of colour to my skin when I come home so I’ll do what I can to make sure I don’t disappoint you. I think the beach is calling me...

Suffering for the Cause

So I was checking into the cost of getting back to Sydney after Christmas and all of the standard options are expensive. I checked with three travel agents and a number of different web sites and found the cheapest direct flight would be booked online instead of through a travel agent and would cost more than my ticket when I came here the first time; and would have some extra hassles with it. After much searching, I got as creative as my accountant-type mind can and checked two different airlines for separate tickets meeting in the middle. Here’s what I found.

Canadian carrier Westjet has a seat sale from Winnipeg to Honolulu and Australian carrier Qantas has a seat sale from Sydney to Honolulu and back ($150 cheaper to get a return ticket instead of getting a one way from Honolulu to Sydney). As a result of these two seat sales, it’s substantially cheaper to take this option than to buy a direct flight.

Now everyone knows it’s not wise to get tickets with two different carriers without allowing enough time between flights; just in case the first one is delayed (a very real possibility for a flight out of Winnipeg in January) so I felt I needed to make sure I had enough time between the flights. Also playing into the equation is a limited flight selection by the time I had made enough other arrangements to actually buy the tickets; but in the end, the tickets end up leaving me stranded in Hawaii for 5 days in January. The savings in ticket prices will cover about half my costs while I’m there, and as a result of doing this, I could save between $500 and $1,000 on plane tickets next Christmas – and save hassles of changing flight dates around mid-year. All in all, it looks like I’ll be saving money by spending some time in Honolulu.

Now I realize there’s a price to be paid for going to school and getting into ministry; so I’m willing to do this. If any of you has been to Honolulu before and has some good advice for me on what to see and where to stay while I’m there, please leave me a post with that advice or send me an email. I appreciate all the help I can get in minimizing the difficulties I have to endure in spending this time on a small island in the middle of the Pacific.

Harsh weather

I just have to tell you all that yesterday was the coldest November day in Sydney in 100 years. We got down to 8 degrees Celsius and only hit a daytime high of 15. Ouch is that ever cold!

Men's Conference

Just a quick update to let you all know something is happening here. Last night was the start of men’s conference. It was a great evening with around 4,000 men out worshiping God and bettering themselves. It started with half an hour of “fun” which included four men in a competition of some common “domestic” duties like ironing, taking care of a baby, and waxing (their choice of which part of their body). Then we all settled in for some great worship and moved on to an amazing message from Casey Treat about renewing our minds and the need for change in our lives in order for growth and improvement. The place was packed like I’ve never seen this building yet and there were many commitments to change. If my camera would take better pictures, I’d put a few more up here but here’s the best I got.

Saturday continued with more great stuff and then the keynote speakers, Casey Treat and Kevin Gerald, also spoke at the Sunday services. We also took up an offering that is going 100% to mission work in Rwanda and got just over $242,000 for that. The conference was truly great.

In case any of you are interested in coming to the Hillsong Conference next year in July, some of the people coming out for it were announced at men’s conference. Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin, Israel Houghton, T.D. Jakes, and Lou Giglio to name the ones I remember. It will be great!




Taken just after the session ended Friday Night










A nice shot of my friend Ryan before the evening began. Even Ryan though this was a good picture.

Time to let it out

There’s something I have not said on this blog yet but I think the time has come. Actually the time has come because I feel it’s time for an update but I don’t know what to write.

I’ve come to the realization that one of the most amazing things about the Hillsong Church is that the church does something well in such a laidback society.

From the day I got here, I’ve noticed poor quality in almost everything and I thought at first that it was just my perfectionist nature coming out. It’s not.

Case one:
I was talking about this with another man the other day and he said he and his wife had started a business when they got here and had a really hard time selling something with quality attached to it. He had actually been told by some Aussie’s not to bother trying to do quality because it wouldn’t sell.

Case two:
In Canada, if you measure one step in a staircase, you can generally tell the size of the rest. Not so here. You might be walking down a flight of stairs and all of them are the same height until the last and then there’s an extra inch on one step. Or this extra inch might be in the middle of the staircase.

Case three:
Driving down the road, every second car has a dent in it. To many reasons to get into why.

Case four:
A million dollar house is built and there are half inch gaps between the door and the frame.

Case five:
Paving stone in used in a lot of places but a proper foundation is seldom laid so the bricks are loose, move freely when you walk, and do not keep their position for long

Case six:
There’s an apartment building being built across the street from my place. When I got here two and a half months ago, there were four floors to it. There are now 4 and a quarter floors to it. Any slower and they’ll have to redo the bottom before the top is finished. Now the problem isn’t actually the speed of their work but I’m looking at it from about 200 yards away and I can see from here that the concrete is not strong. Anyone who’s worked with concrete would know this is a problem. From a few feet away, I should be able to tell; but not from 200 yards!

Well, there’s someone here to check the value of the property I’m in so I need to go. So long

Starting a Connect Group

I met up with the pastor in charge of the people aged 25-35 a couple weeks back and after two minutes of talking, he told me I should start leading a connect group. I wasn’t sure how serious he was until later that evening when I was at my connect meeting and my leader talked with me about it. The pastor had told her to make sure she talked with me and encourage me to do it. Well, one thing led to another and I’ve now been to a meeting for new connect leaders and am working through the process of becoming one. I’m planning to start it after I get back from Christmas. The people in leadership I’ve been in contact with are quite excited about me starting one and as I was talking about it with some other students the other day they said they would like to join mine. I hadn’t really thought about leading a connect group already but when it was suggested to my I realized I had no reason not to and tons of reasons to do it; so here we go… I’m here for two years training for leadership. I may as well put it into practice right from the start.