A Proper Catch Me Up

Let’s rewind the events of last week shall we?

Monday 18th
Monday brought an all day Office day (the BBC version of course). All 12 regular season episodes. We ran into a time issue and were unable to watch the remaining 2 Christmas Specials, but we sent them home with our first time viewer Rach who bravely sat through the marathon AND provided lunch. Most excellent.

Tuesday-Wednesday 19th-20th
Picked up some extra cash doing some manual labor for J’s brother in his warehouse. I haven’t had a leg workout since the days of Fellowes High… or possibly Bethany (when we had out own keys to the gym and it was down in the basement…beside that video store downtown). Seriously it took me 3 days to recover. It was like I did sissy squats for a whole day. I was wheeling rubbish into a storage area in a parking garage (lower level) and the ramp was pretty steep, and the rubbish was fairly heavy. Although at the time it was fine, the day after was another story. And I was having to get up earlier than I did for my other job. Yeah I “winjed” (means whined for those of you who don’t know Aussie speak.) But it was cash in hand so it was all good in the end.

Thursday 21st
The Australian Reptile Park can be experienced in the pictures below. In the afternoon J and I went up to the beaches to grab a coffee. Then I asked her some stuff and she got to wear this.

Saturday 23rd
I had my first AFL experience. One of our friends had “members” tickets to the footy and invited us. AFL is huge in Victoria (sourthern state) but has representation now in all the states and territories in Australia. It is a very different game than rugby, but is still very fast and there some big smashes. The Sydney Team is the Swans, who are struggling right now, and played terrible. Some of the basic rules are: you can bump any player without the ball, but only tackle the one who has the ball; you can hand pass the ball but you must bump it like volleyball (one handed); you can kick the ball; you score goals by kicking the ball through the middle uprights…single points for the 2 side uprights; when a ball is smothered or put out of bounds the referee offer the ball up for a challenge (either by bouncing it off the ground (smothered) or blind throwing (back to the field) over their head (out of bounds); if you catch a kicked ball that has travelled more than 15meters you get a “mark” (basically a free kick). So you try to move the ball up field so you can kick a goal. There are other rules but you really need to watch it and ask questions. Like I do. To top off the evening, with some clever parking, and toll avoidance the entire night only cost us 2.20$… very thrifty.

Monday 25th
Yesterday was Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand (public holiday). It is basically like our Rememberance Day. We had an Anzac Party at a friend’s which gave me the perfect excuse to wear my Aussie Flag shirt I recieved for Christmas. I am so patriotic…to other countries…while I exist there. Good food and more footy (of course). You only have 3 options for sports down under: some brand of rugby, AFL, and cricket. Cricket is discribed as baseball on valium. They aren’t lying.

And now I am back at work at the warehouse. 6 days to go before I am unemployed again. Looking for some casual labor jobs until I visit the motherland again. Something will turn up. I was also backed into while waiting in a merge lane today. No damage thankfully. There. Now you know.

Now Nearly 99.3% Gout Free

I finally got a hold of my doctor today. She said my blood test results were in the normal range, but at the higher end of it. She holds to the theory that the problem was gout-related, and said to just take my prescription back in if my foot flares up again. I love being given authority to self diagnose. So much easier that way. I remember being given penicillin when I’d get sick at home… every time. I was always terrible at finishing off medication. I am probably the reason that there are so many virus mutations out there. I’ll try and do better. I promise.

Australian Reptile Park Excursion

I was having a discussion with one of the “blokes” the other day about how I have never seen footage of a Koala walking on the ground, and questioned if they did. Think about it. Have you ever seen a picture of a Koala NOT in a tree or clinging to a handler? Well I now have conclusive evidence. Video and photo. And I learned that one of the Koala’s at the park had bitten off the nipple of a female worker once. The left nipple to be precise. So severe was the damage that they couldn’t reattach it. This was over heard at one of the animal exhibitions as we we walking by. There you go… even Koalas are dangerous. Is there nothing safe in this country?

re:design

I have been learning about css and decided to try and redesign my site using just css. So much easier. So much cleaner. And easier to make quick changes. I will probably be tweaking stuff most of this week, so if the ole site goes down (for the 5 of you who check this on any regular basis) it will be back up eventually.

I have taken off the sidebar links except for the archives. I am using NetNewWire Lite, a rss feed news reader to keep up to date with everyone’s blogs… I recommend it… easy to see who has updated quickly. So I will still be visiting you… just wanted to clean up the site a bit… I may bring them back eventually, but they are off for now… so don’t be offended.

I use Safari, and it works well on this browser, but if it is stuffing up on some other browser let me know, and I’ll tweak it some more. Thanks.

Small Change

I have been thinking more and more about what it means to follow Jesus, and how to fight the temptation to be domesticated in my faith, instead of living a life of radical love. How to live simply, but not just simply live. To take a more proactive posture on things like social justice, the poor, and consumerism. It is hard sometimes to live out the ideals you have in your head. We are so good at consuming. We should be. We are trained to be. But that isn’t an excuse. I really want to explore the areas of fair trade… I want to try and help the disadvantaged… I want to be conscious of my comsuming habits and how they affect others. As a follower of Jesus Christ should I not be concerned about low wage factories? Child labour? Fair business practice? As a consumer I decide where to spend/give my dollar. I can choose to support organizations who practice fair trade. Or I can help make rich people richer and further marginalize the poor.

Shouldn’t we care about this stuff? Why haven’t cared about this before? Will I care about it next week? So I got something to remind me. I bought some shoes.

I got them at OxFam in the city. This company, No Sweat Stuff makes em. This is their North American link. You can find similar shoes here, with a bit more politically charged motive, but it’s Adbusters, what would you expect right?

No, this doesn’t make me any better than anyone else. I am just sharing where I am at. It will take a long time to retrain myself to live out the ideal… maybe eternity… but it’s a start.

Finding Nemo In Neverland

Spent 3 hours touring around the Sydney Aquarium yesterday. I have been dying to go for a while and I got some passes for my birthday, and yesterday was the day.

Platypuses are probably one of my favorite animals. They are such an anomaly. Unfortunately the first exhibit was them, so people bottlenecked into that area, so you really couldn’t take you time… but they were still cool. The one thing I will say is that most of the exhibits are not camera friendly, which may be on purpose I understand, but still… disappointing.

I did grab a few pics to share… I also discovered that my battery for my camera was low… again… disappointing… so I had to reserve it.

If you have been to the Pybus’ you would have met the arowana. This fish is a saratoga, which is the Australian version of the arowana. Apparently they are a good game fish.

They had 2 big aquariums that had a glass tunnel in so you could walk through, and have the sharks & seals swim around you (obviously they weren’t in the same tank). Good times.

I am hoping to get to the Australian Reptile Park this week… they have all the spiders and snakes. Can’t wait.

Rugby League & The Train

Friday night I went to a Rugby league (which is different from Rugby Union, which I don’t find as good, and AFL: Aussie Rules Football which looks very little like rugby as we know it, but still is cool to watch) game… my first live “footy” experience. Actually, taking the train into the stadium was quite the experience… P.A.C.K.E.D. with crazies! Unreserved seating was only 20$, and we were right on the corner of the goal line. There were 27,111 people there but the stadium still looked half full… I think it was a venue they built for the Olympics, and then cut it down to size…I think they should do it again.

Anyways… the basic premis of Rugby League is this: you team has 6 possessions to get a try, or get the ball down field as far as possible. You aren’t allowed to block, or throw the ball forward. So basically you have these massive men funning full tilt into a group of more massive men whose purpose is to try and kill you. Once they have downed the dude with the ball…they generally rub his face into the ground… he gets up… puts the ball down… rolls it backwards with one foot…a teammate picks it up and throws it to another who is already running full tilt…and we do it again. If they don’t get a try, or aren’t in range for a field goal, they’ll kick the ball away and work on the defense. You can also forward the ball by kicking it… usually bouncing it off the ground, in an attempt to have one of your own guys break the line and gain possession or a try.

There you have it. As I do at hockey games, I sometimes get caught up watching the jumbotron intstead of the live action… it’s a big field… but I would look up and find the game to be in our end… haven’t mastered that yet.

On the train ride home, there was some big fight at one of the stations, security and the cops were called in, and some general other craziness. Always an adventure when you wander out of the house.

I think we scored some free AFL tickets sometime in May. AFL is a totally other breed… you need someone to explain it to you as you watch. Generally people who like Rugby League don’t like the others. Either you like AFL… or you don’t. I am going to bridge this gap and bring healing in this area.

Happy Holidays…One Day Early!

So the last two days I have been barely able to walk on my right foot… the ball of my foot feels really swollen and I can lift my toe. I went to the doctors this afternoon and she took some blood. I’ll get the results of the tests on Monday. In the meantime I have some anti-flamitory drugs to try and enable me to walk properly. One possible diagnosis… get this:

Gout. What. The. Frig.

Who gets gout? I thought it was an elderly persons problem… and even though I AM getting on in years… blah blah… I have never heard of anyone having gout except for the lunch lady. And she had a bad case of it. It didn’t help matters that when I thought of gout I pictured goiters… they are two very different beasts let me tell you, and gout is the lesser of the two evils. Basically it is toxins that either the kidneys or liver (can’t remember which one) didn’t process, and they accumulate in your joints and crystalize. Apparently the big toe joint is a classic spot for them, which is why she suspects it… but we’ll know on Monday for sure.

Personally I think I aggrivated my foot injury from last July when I jumped off some walking planks (working for Rod’s Forming) onto some uneven ground and brusied this area… but I can’t figure out how I “reinjured” it… AND it is far worse than it ever was the last time. Figures I would have to travel half way around the world to get some gout.

Just Visiting

Like I said, we visited a Baptist church this past Sunday night. One of the pastors I met at one of the Forge intensives a month or so ago. It reminded me of the Falls. Small church. Old school. Amazing people. Seriously, it was like we were old friends who had been away for a while. We were very welcomed… from the guy who walked in behind us… to the first greeter… and second greeter… to the 6 people who sat in front of us and behind us… to the three or four people who came up to us afterwards to say hello… to the pastor who met us and sent us a personal letter each (got it Tuesday). Really nice people. Ethnically diverse and generationally diverse. We sand some songs from the 80’s (even though I didn’t really go to church in the 80’s, I am well versed in the music, and these songs and choruses sounded only like church music from that era can!)… were led in worship… and prayer… and heard a message about communion. And this is where it got weird…

I didn’t get aggitated. I didn’t get critical. Could I have worked through my “church issues” and matured spiritually, being able to see people serving God the best they know how? Probably not. In fact I know I haven’t. I don’t know what it was. Maybe I finally saw past my own selfishness/ church consumerist mindset and actually actively sought to worship God. Maybe my expectations were lower… maybe this was a bigger lesson than I realize right now… I know I need work on my church issues still… they are coming along… I am slowly seeing my own arrogance/bitterness/fears/frustration/selfishness, but there is more to get through.

The sermon was good… not amazing…not dynamic or overly powerful…and that was ok.
The leader was alright…not really funny… not a great communicator… he knew what he wanted to share and get across and he had obviously put work into tying everything together…and that was ok.
The music was alright… not flashy… not modern… not rocky… and that was ok.

These people were just regular people giving of themselves. When I look at the experience overall, there is nothing that appeals to me at first glance…but it did… in a big way…

I like good teaching. I like being challenged intellectually and emotionally (spiritually) in a sermon. I love rockin’ music played well… I like drums… I like people to lead me well. I like humour.

None of what happened was about me. And that was the point. Maybe I have finally got it. Probably not. It isn’t about me. It’s about God. And for the first time in a long time it was about God. I have been missing so much. I had been to church. I had been with God.

Photo Ops Trial #2

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Originally uploaded by zamboni49.