The brave new world continues.
Up at 8am. I know, that is shocking, but it was all worth it. Eggs Benedict (see title) is a joyous thing, and when it is made with your parents free range eggs (the parents own the eggs, but chickens made them…. 
then it is all the better.
I didn’t sleep so well last night. I only had myself to blame. I always liked to tell myself that I was immune to such things, but I realised that the half a litre of diet-coke that I consumed at about 11 probably had something to do with my anability to achieve some kind of sweet repose. That said, the night was sweet nonetheless. Rain, that half distant memory, the old, almost forgotten friend, came knocking and decided to spend the even chattering away outside. I slept with the door open. Listening, smelling, drinking it in. It’s not just the rain, but the countryside too!
So, I was up at 8am. I enjoyed a fabulous breakfast. How does one top such a lovely morning. Well, Rog had arranged to go on a tour of the local coal mine. I took mum’s place, cause she is a bit claustrophobic (and because she loves her son & is exceptionally generous), so by 12:30 I was eating a free lunch, by 1pm I was being instructed on the use of my head lantern & the emergency breathing apparatus, and by 1:30 I was 3km down a tunnel and a couple of hundred meters underground!
Dark? As pitch!
Cold? Not really.
Dirty? You betcha! I didn’t get “Zoolander” dirty, but if I were actually to have done some work down there, I am sure I would have been.
Fascinating? Definately! To see a machine that is 260 meters wide, that sheers off 1m wide sheets of coal at a time, well that is just cool.
Other news? There isn’t a great deal of that. It is too wet to really take any outdoor pictures & I have spent enough time here at home before, that there is not really a great deal I want to shoot here. I have neither the time, not the inclination to go wine tasting by myself.
It is fun being here. It is nice to be reminded of how much your parents love you (did I mention my fave “Chunky Chilli” for dinner, along with the promise of Mushroom soup next week?) and to have some “down time” too.
Back to Sydney tomorrow afternoon. Off to a concert with, what I hope will be some youth group kids. My mate Dave said he might get me backstage, so I can be his bands photographer!
And the weekend? Who knows what possibilities lie there!
Holidays are good.
Today I woke up at 11:53. Par for the course for some people cough,cough,Michaela but a LOOONG sleep for me!
I’m not acheiving too much in the holidays, but that is just fine. So far I visited my grandparents, spent some time at church, went to my nieces birthday party & drove up to the Hunter Valley. Today I intend to drink a little wine, play a little pool, eat a little lunch, read a litte book (Balzac, or a biography on Master Robert Bruce… I haven’t decided), study a little Greek, before I have a little sleep!
Yes, holidays are good.
First birthdays totally get the most presents!
Oh YEAH!!!!!
Dan Connor, one of the guys in my dorm, decided to “exorcise the demon” that was the stress everyone is feeling before tomorrows exams start. Of course, others might attempt to do that by writing an encouraging letter or two, or giving people chocolates.
Not Dan….
Tonight at 10pm, Dan, and perennial prankster Jeff Keighly, organised an outdoor “Service”. As we gathered in anticipation, we instead met “Pope Danny C” and “Cardinal Keighly”, who read for us some poetry, before leading everyone in a rousing rendition of “What a friend we have in Jesus”
Working their musical magic.
Of course, this was impressive enough, but things had to be taken up that single notch further. This was achieved by gaffa taping 100 sparklers to a thin pole, which were then ceremoniously lit & hoisted in an “Ashera Pole” style.
Amusing? Yes.
Orthodox? Not quite.
Effective? Definately!
Dan lifts up his voice as our exam fears are ‘burnt away’…
It’s nice to be reminded that exams are just exams. Who ever really enjoys the process coming into them? Well as much as I don’t like the stress of failing, I have to say that I really appreciate the consolidation of this information in my head. The hope is that it will become life-knowledge, rather than just the means by which I past the tests over the next week. I could fail every exam & still consider it a worthy and worthwhile time!
Bern and Geoff can play almost anything on a Ukulele!
I don’t know. I think this might be the scariest I will ever look.
No, it’s the ceiling at Budapest’s Opera Hall. I know I have published this one before, but I also know it is one of Meg’s favourites. So this one if for Meg.
December 2004. Total dark by 4:30! That is kind of weird. It was a very pretty city though.
I’ve been uploading some pictures on to “Flickr” that I have posted before. Basically now you can click on the pic & get a bigger version. Anyway, it gives me somthing to post whilst I concentrate on study.
Little Fooze-Ball man from Berlin.
Time is running out dear friends. A week and a half & then I will be in exams. I have 5 in total, so there is a fair bit of preparation to do.
To compound my inability to post stuff for you, I have lent my camera to a guy from college for the weekend. He is off shooting a wedding down south. No camera, no time and no energy.
Even now, I had planned to write a big post, but ended up chatting to a mate. Maybe I will just leave you with a poem. A happy little ditty from C.S. Lewis called “Evolution”
Lead us, Evolution, lead us
up the futures endless stair;
chop us, change us, prod us, weed us.
For stagnation is despair.
Groping, guessing, yet progressing.
Lead us nobody knows where.
Wrong or justice, joy or sorrow
In the present what are they
While there’s always jam-tomorrow
while we tread the onward way?
Never knowing where we’re going
we can never go astray.
To whatever variation
our posterity may turn
Hair, squashy, or crustacean
Bulbous eyed or square of stern
tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless
towards that unknown god we yearn
Ask not if it’s god or devil
Bretheren, lest your words imply
static norms of good and evil
(as in plato) throned on high
such scholastic, inelastic
Abstract yardsticks we deny
Far too long have sages vainly
glossed great nature’s simple text;
He who runs can read it plainly
“Goodnes=what comes next”
By evolving life is solving
all the questions we perplexed
Oh then! Value means survival-
value. If our progeny
spreads and spawns and licks each rival
That will prove its deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present
standards, though it may well be.)