It was an ambitious plan to drive from the Central Coast to Melbourne on the Monday morning, Melbourne to Wagga on the Thursday, then Wagga back home on Saturday, but it did mean that Shona, myself & the kids got to spend time with all of my family, and we also spent a lot of time together (mostly in the car!).

We went to Melbourne Zoo, we spent time on my favourite street at one of my favourite chocolate stores, we found out that Wagga has a produce market & it’s own impressive chocolate store (which even had chocolates whose explanations included obscure references to 1980’s comedy/horror movies…. I got points for knowing who Bruce Campbell was).

The whole time was awesome.

Well, I should get back to normal blogging now, but here’s a couple of photos from the last little while.

My munchkins spent half a week with me up at the Hunter Valley before our big road trip… They’re still afraid of the dog.

Pumpkin LOVED spending time with her cousin, who was a great host (here at the Zoo)

Melbourne Zoo is pretty cool.

Gumnut is a lot more mobile & a lot more inquisitive every day.

Nice to know your son trusts you.

Annika loves her gift from the Zoo “Giraffie”, though she could be more imaginative with the name…

The Goldfinch/Smith kids together.

I LOVE this picture of Mama & Gumnut.

Pumpkin was quite taken with Uncle Andrew.

What can you say?

They were the first white band to rap seriously. They still rock!

I’m sitting at the kitchen table at my sister’s house in Wagga Wagga. There are half a dozen little kids rustling about me. Holidays haven’t proven to be a relaxing time, but they certainly have been fun.

Dinners with my bro & his fam in Melbourne, trips to the zoo and my fave strip of shops on Maling Rd. (Big shout out to Xocolatl chocolates… you compete with Adora as my faves) WAYYYY to much time spent driving in a car, and now a couple of days chilling out with my sister, her fam & my parents.

Talk is of food, games are of trivia, laughs are plentiful.

Apart from a fat lip when Pumpkin tripped forward on a basketball court this afternoon, we’ve even come through injury free.

All we have left is the Wagga Markets tomorrow morning, a long drive in the afternoon, followed by RUGBY in the evening! WOOT!

Going back to work is going to feel like a holiday by comparison!

Photos to come!

It’s pouring rain, I have two kids going nuts in the house… I Need a little energy.

You can’t tell me that “Whoomp there it is” doesn’t do that!

I’d like to be blogging more often, but given the choice of playing on a computer, or making the most of the Hunter Valley wine district… Well you know what you’d do.

Walking amongst the vines, enjoying mum’s cooking, heading out fir gelato at a winery… And, best if all, making the most if Foxtel’s 24 hour rugby wold cup coverage!

Be back soon.

I finished Metaxas’ “Bonhoeffer” book today, then I knocked off Francis Schaeffer’s “The New Super-Spirituality.”

I’m quoting pretty much the whole last page, cause I think it’s awesome.

Christianity is not only intellectual, it is not only our cultural responsibility. Christianity is being born again on the basis of the finished work of Christ, his substitutionary death in space-time history. Christianity is the reality of communion with God in the present life, it is the understanding that there is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it is the understanding that there is the moment-by-moment empowering of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is the understanding that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. It is the understanding that the fruit of the Spirit is meant to mean something real to All Christians. It is the understanding that prayer is real and not just a devotional exercise. Indeed we must not over-react to the new Platonic super-spirituality, but we must stress that Christ is Lord of the whole man, not just Lord of the soul. He is the Lord of the intellect and Lord of the body. He means us to affirm life and not negate life. Such is the ideal. May God show us the living balance and help us to live, by his grace, in that balance.

I was chatting to my friend Jess about chocolate (she brought some lovely stuff to Clergy Conference) and chocolate preferrences, and explained that while I prefer “Ganache” style chocolates, I love the “theatre” of my favourite “block” chocolate that comes in a tobacco pouch styled wrapper.

It got me thinking about food & theatre.

Personally, I’m not that into some of the stuff they have in Masterchef. I don’t think I’ll ever spend half an hour working out how to make a “sea mist” appear on my plate, or go all Heston, making things that look like a vegetable, but made out of meat… but I do think some kind of theatre with food is important. It may be as simple as a tiny ritual that connects you to memory & makes the whole experience sweeter.

When I open a bottle or can of diet coke, I love to suck up the tiny bit of mist that is trapped between the drink & the lid… It’s like a cola-mist that transports me back to being a teenager at a beach…

I like the theatre attached to eating oreo cookies, breaking apart the two biscuits, but trying to keep all of the fondant attached to just one… Likewise every M&M is a treat for me when I have to try & crack off all of the shell without breaking any of the chocolate inside…

So, is there a piece of food theatre that brings you joy?

1989.

My dad had a conference to go to in the USA & he managed to swing the whole family going on a holiday together. Part of this meant catching up with some friends of theirs in Philadelphia.

I remember arriving, then heading downstairs with their son “Chad” (oh, so American!), where Chad introduced us to the glorious thing called Cable TV, and more particularly, “Yo MTV Raps,” an hour of rap music in the afternoons.

The only film clip I remember watching before I fell asleep from the remainder of jetlag was “Me, Myself & I” by De La Soul.

Definitely a very different feel to the gangsta rap of later generations…

I was looking on Amazon at one of John Dickson’s latest books “Humilitas,” checking some of the reviews, when I read the following quote.

“Humility applied to convictions does not mean believing things any less; it means treating those who hold contrary beliefs with respect and friendship.” (p. 167).

I like the quote, and having had some deep conversations at my diocesan leadership conference with people who hold some beliefs contrary to mine, I find it particularly pertinent.

I might have to put it on my wish list…