weblog > archives > August 2008
Etiquette
August 27, 2008 11:09 PM
I’m not entirely sure what the appropriate way one talks about the death of people they love on their blogs, so I have come up with a little plan…
Firstly, the story. Last Wednesday afternoon, my Mum’s dad, known to parts of our family as “Bamma,” died at 94. There is limitless rhetoric available about “having a good innings” etc, but that doesn’t mean much to those who wish he were “still in the game.”
Anyway, I don’t really feel like the internet is the appropriate place for me to wax lyrical about Bamma. Some things really are better discussed in relationship, so instead I thought I would blog about a bunch of “Old” things that I have been enjoying recently, in honour of the old man whom I miss muchly….
1: Get the “Old Crew” together….
All of the family came up for the Funeral on Monday. On Sunday, however, we played. This included one of the “old classic” pastimes of cruising down to the beach, having a walk (and a shoulder ride, and a jump) on the beach, followed by an icecream!
You have to love Australia. Still within the bounds of Winter (I think… or are we just out of it by now? I get confused!) yet it is still nice icecream weather!!
2: Read some “Old” Books…
OK, so they are both new books that I bought, but the Calvin book is (loosely) about Calvinism, which is an old theology. When my friend Bruce pointed this book out to me, I had to have it. The second book is a collection of 145 short stories, compiled (and some written by) Dave Eggers, author of one of my favourite books, “You shall know our velocity”. Anyway, I got into short stories because of some Hemmingway and Poe that I’ve read, and they are both old, so it counts too.
3: Old foods.
I had Bible study over at my house this evening, and I enjoy cooking something nice for them. Again, they are new to me, but they are an “old classic” of the cafe scene, the humble Friand. These ones were Raspberry & White Chocolate, and went down a treat!
4: The Consumption of Old Drinks
Actually, it’s not Ardbeg I am drinking, it is “Highland Park,” and it isn’t 10 years old, it is 12, but this was the only photo that I could find in my archives of Whisky. I could have taken a picture of my Highland Park bottle, but you see, the drinking is something that I am about to do, not something I have done, so I didn’t want to waste time.
Whenever I write something like “the drinking” it makes it sound like I plan on knocking back a bottle. Truth be told, I’m just going to enjoy one simple dram as I sit back & enjoy one of my old books.
Sitting, reading & enjoying a nice Whisky fits my “ode to the old man” quite nicely…
Survival
August 18, 2008 10:13 AM
So I survived the 40-hour famine. I have to say that the not eating bit wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be. Once you don’t have breakfast, I felt like metabolism just sort of shut down. I didn’t have too many problems with hunger at all. My only real concern was that I like to eat & it is something that I do to break up the time. I would find myself bored & need to find something else to do instead of eat.
Maybe this is good training if the G-dawg wants to drop some kilos?
Of course, I am not saying that the famine was a walk in the park. The big killer, however, was the sleepover. It’s a sad reality in my life that I don’t have the sleep-deprivation stamina that I once exhibited. Come 3am, I was really starting to tire. Actually, I don’t know if it’s the stamina, as much as it is a realisation of other responsibilities & worry about my ability to carry them out.
I needed to work on my sermon on Saturday, then on Sunday I had a kids talk in the morning, followed by sitting in on a baptism class, then off to a reunion lunch, followed by a meeting for the evening church, followed by church itself, followed by dinner with a lovely couple from church. Lots of stuff to have to do back to back, when you’re tired & you don’t get to eat till 9:45 on Sunday morning.
Mother other slight miscalculation was that I thought if I finished my famine at 9:45am, that would be just in time for my kids talk. Unfortunately, I miscalculated it & had 7 minutes to go when my kids talk started. However, the kids thought it was twice as funny that I had brought in all this stuff for my little meal, and then had to sit there staring at it…
Anyway, the one down side to Sundays being a work day is that you get home, feeling like you have survived the week, but there is no weekend buffer before you start the next one. My day off, Saturday, kind of got swallowed up this week, so it’s monday morning & it’s back into the fray!
I guess that is the good thing about working for the church. It’s tiring, but it is nice to really believe in what your doing & not begrudge the little sacrifices that one might have to make to keep things going.
As a brief aside, here’s a pic that I kind of like. It’s a thin slice of kiwifruit held up against the sun.
Slow weekend...
August 15, 2008 9:55 AM
I know it’s going to be a slow weekend.
Not because I don’t have anything to do. In fact, I am pretty darn busy the whole time, but this weekend is 40 Hour Famine weekend at church, and it just wouldn’t be right for me to be a youth leader & not partake in the famine myself. I thought about giving up technology or something like that for the 40, but that would be a bit soft on my part.
Why is is that when you plan something like this, a time where you would hope to spend lots of it asleep, you end up having youth sleepovers? It just makes you hungrier! Still, it should be good fun, so that will be OK.
The following is just a little fun I had with Caleb after Bible Study on Wednesday. It’s been fun & encouraging to work through the book of Acts with him, and it is also good fun to see what bicarb soda does with vinegar!