It’s impossible to look down at those tiny hands, that matted hair, those eyes, open in awe and wonder, and not dissolve into a puddle of cliches.
And now I understand.
I always wondered whether the moment would be too abstract for me. After all, it is just another face isn’t it? But it’s indescribable, unbelievable, maybe chemical?
It’s a new and different kind of love.
And it certainly puts God’s love in the sacrifice of Jesus in a different light, because I can’t imagine giving up my girl for anything!
Let’s say that I am a little on struggle street at the moment. The last 10 hours have involved a good deal of eating. Actually, the last 3 days have been pretty good for that.
Amy should post all about the amazing dinner on thursday night (all I have to say about it is that I got to eat Haggis, a Scottish dessert called Cranachan, Pork Belly & a fantastic singlemalt Whisky from Glenkinchie), so I thought I would tell you about today. Actually, I remembered to bring along my Camera (unlike on thursday night) so I can SHOW you about today.
Here goes…
When Shona & I arrived at 9am (planned, so that we could a) catch up with Amy & b) score some free breakfast) we could think of no better picture to arrive to than two of my lovely nieces sitting down to breakfast. They are as cute as buttons & lots of fun!!
Cutie #1 (in no specific order)
Cutie #2. (aided by the static electricity of two balloons!)
Of course, hanging out at breakfast was only the beginning. After helping Amy book her accommodation for her may trip to Edinburgh (yay for her!) She & Bethy headed home & the rest of us headed into a great place called “Tatler” for some fantastic tapas, a dash of wine & some celebration for mum making the big “Six Ohhh”.
(The following food photography section is dedicated to Amy, whose food pictures inspired me, and Tricia & Jessica, who in turn inspired Amy! This has to be worth a comment from each of you?)
A fantastic menu & a nice Rose was a good way to start.
We can’t do anything before remembering the person whom we are celebrating.
The squid is a family favourite (so were the garlic prawns that I forgot to photo)
Kristin picked the field mushrooms & they were a hit!
Is Lamb Souvlaki ever a bad thing?
After our “Mains” Kristin, Charlotte & I went outside to feed the ducks. They were pretty from a distance, but gosh they were ugly to look at close up!
Ugly Ducks
The highlight of the day, however, had to be the desserts. I had a chance to have a shot at all of them!
Bavarian chocolate pudding with vanilla bean icecream.
Almond semifreddo with raspberry coulis & biscotti
Chocolate cookie sandwich with vanilla bean icecream filling.
Having gorged ourselves for a couple of hours, P&K headed back to stay at Mum & Dad’s house, while Shona & I headed home, because of church commitments tomorrow…
Now the only question that remains is “What will we try & do for dinner?”
As of approximately 12:55, on the afternoon of Feb 15th, Tim & Shona got the internet at their house!
In 24 hours (phones have to charge) we’ll have a landline & then we officially exist!
Pictures of our new digs & other miscellanea to follow.
Auld Reekie is another name for Edinburgh.
I really love that city.
I have this little dream of moving back there, or maybe into country Scotland in the future!
Did I mention that I am going there for my honeymoon?
What a sweet deal! Shona’s sister & bro-in-law (Hi Maret & Tim, Charlotte & Will) moved there a couple of weeks ago, cause Tim got a job there. Unfortunately They wont be able to make it back for the wedding because of their two young kids, so, Shona & decided to bring things to them! (thanks to some assistance)
So, July 1 it is back to Auld Reekie for a week, followed by a week through the highlands & lowlands of Scotland & then topped off with 4 days in Paris! Let’s hope that Shona doesn’t read this, so I can get away with saying “think of all the great photos I’ll be able to take over there!!!!”
Meanwhile, it is full steam ahead at college & Church. We’ve got Revive coming to play at Youth Group on friday. I am preaching on Sunday, plus there is the usual load of assignments (I finished an essay 4 whole days early!) and a mountain of prep for Mission which is in a week and a half!
I’ll still try & blog at least once before I go.
Meanwhile, here are a couple of old pictures of Scotland. So much to look forward to!
Doune Castle, near Stirling is the place where they shot 3/4 of “Monty Python & the Holy Grail”
This is a little house just before you reach Glencoe. Imagine having a back yard like that!
The Clava Cairns are 6000 years old! Lovely looking things.
Girls, if you are anything like the girls I have met over the last 5 days, you may as well just skip the following story & proceed directly to the pictures of the ring at the bottom of this post.
——————–
Why would you propose a couple of days before your exams start?
Some might ask.
(Why would you write a blog about it at 11pm the night before your worst exam?)
Others might also query…. to that question there is no answer!
As to the first question, people want to know, so here’s the story.
Read on →
Welcome Dave to the world of blogging!
I’m looking forward to some good stories & some great pictures. I’m sure some of the timgoldsmith.com readers are too. Maybe a story about people you go to Bible College with?
TCG.><>.
I’d spent a fair bit of time on Sunday night’s sermon. I had really grappled with this passage & felt like I had a two-handed grip on it. It’s been a great personal challenge to me too. That said, I just didn’t feel like I was in the comfortable position I wanted to be with the sermon itself. It didn’t feel gripping & I had less of that tingly anticipation & more of that nervous apprehension about how it would all pan out.
My lead in to preaching was not ideal that afternoon. I had some rough stuff to do, compounded by the fact that I left a folder with all my sermon notes & confirmation class notes at home (cue the mad drive down to the supermarket to buy some CDs to burn new copies of everything on my laptop so I could print them off at work.)
Bad place. Less than confident with the shape of my sermon but there I was.
Did I mention that Shona came & so did her friends (and my new friends) Sim & Dave, Marty & Jen?
I felt like the sermon itself went fairly average & like I put in a sub-par effort for my visitors.
Sometimes you need a lesson about a sovereign God who works through weak vessels.
One of my parishioners gave me some great feedback, saying that I had really spoken to her that night. Initially I thought she was just being polite, but she repeated the same sentiments a little later. My great visitors also gave me some good feedback (though I was encouraged that they felt comfortable about giving me the honest criticism about my being tied to my notes a bit too).
It was a tough day for me, but as I lay in bed reflecting last night, I realised that God is faithful to me & is seeking to use me even when I feel like crap & don’t feel like I have put a foot right. His strength really is perfected in my weakness!
So thanks to my visitors, thanks to great parishoners & praise be our sovereign God!
Can I say how much I hate the word “Bling”!
Now I have to be careful. Most of my Antipodean friends would claim that I am a great user of North American affectations. They may even be right, but that doesn’t stop me frong cringing and bristling every time I hear jewelry referred to as such.
Were Silver or Gold to be sentient, I am pretty sure it would melt off the fingers of any such faux fashionistas and head posthaste to the earth, rich, sweet and real. Of course, that via the throat of its ex-owner (and I mean that in the “they are no longer with us” sense of the word “ex”).
Kirsty is not a “Bling” kind of girl.
Of course, I mean this in the best possible sense. She certainly has style and flair! But her elegance comes in a classic, effortless style that refuses such poxy, fleeting terms.
Kirty turned 30.
So this is a pic of Kirt showing off her latest birthday acquisitions.
I only just noticed the bandaid on the thumb. Possibly the result of an injury earned in the line of duty as a teacher. Always in the fray.
So, Friday night was Kirsty’s 30th. An awesome night, first and foremost because it is great to see such a cool chick with so many of her friends around, but equally awesome because it was a chance to catch up with a bunch of old friends.
From left to right, Ronnie, Geneveive, Me, Cate & Kirsty.
Four good friends from my school days were there. Ronnie, Jacqui , Geneveive and Cate. I hadn’t seen Ronnie in over a decade (and I have never spelled her name, only spoken it… so apologies if I got it wrong), and Jacq & Gen I don’t get to see as often as I would like, so that was awesome.
so there were many people ladies looking lovely, and with me knowing primarily chicks there, I looked quite like the ladies man, man’s man, man about town!
Of course I love catching up with my old friends!
Well there you go. It was a great way to finish of my holiday weeks. I told the girls that I would write about them & I’m not a liar (Jacq, how did you escape the group picture? You will get your own one soon).
So, Kirsty, Cate, Gen, Jacq, & Ronnie. True examples & class and style.
And no need for a single “Bling”
I love the “fisheye” style pool shots!
OK, so there isn’t a great deal of things that are happening that are either exciting or new…
I’ve been house sitting for the week at Dave’s house in Kenthurst. Its been nice to have very little to do & to just relax a little. I finished “The Grapes of Wrath” and did some reading for the intensive subject that I do on the first week of college. In fact, I have had so much time that last night I even did an assignment for that subject! That bad boy has to be at least two weeks early!
I did have a fairly exciting Saturday last week, when I shot Cam & Louise’s wedding. It was the first wedding that I did all by myself & I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy it at all! It is just stressful & you never know how things are going to turn out. I have a couple more weddings to do & then I think I may retire from this profession, unless I can secure a great assistant who can make me look good….
One little frustration has been that I have a great signal from my hosts wifi computer, but it wont actually connect to the net, so unfortunately, I am without the ability to upload any photos or anything for you all.
OK, if you hadn’t guessed from this entry so far, I appear to be without any real direction and devoid of inspiration, so I might get back to doing some readings. 1 1/2 more hours & we have Shannyn’s celebration dinner, as she finishes up work as a DT & waits to start at St Jude’s as an MTS worker! Happy days ahead.
