Today’s reminiscence takes us back to early 2004. I was working for MMR & living in Mangrove Mountain on a campsite. Most of the time the people stayed in cabins & I had my own little house, but on rare occasions you got to trek out somewhere & do some “real” camping.
I do miss a little bit of that. phaffing about in the bush, hanging out with kids, and of course, lighting fires!

Just one of the pictures from K&K’s wedding. You have to love the Cambodians & all their colour!

Not every classic photo has to be well composed, rich in colour and texture. Today’s classic photo for example. This here is the night that my little brother Phil (front left) celebrated the birth of his baby girl Charlotte.
A fantastic day that day, a fantastic night that night, a pretty good cigar & nice port, and finally a badly composed and underlit, yet classic photo to mark the occasion.

I have been cleaning up my backup hard drive & looking through some old photos. I thought I might post one or two of my early works.
Following is probably one of my fave portraits of myself. It is rare for me to enjoy a picture of me, so this is a keeper.

There are two qualifying points to this entry, on which, I hope, we all agree.
1: Friendship, at least, true friendship is not determined by what you bring into a relationship. i.e. just because I am the richest, or best looking, that doesn’t mean that I have the most friends, or that you, in particular, are my friend.
2: Friendship, at least, true friendship, is not determined by what you are going to get out of a relationship. i.e. your friends don’t have to shower you with gifts or attention to keep your friendship. The ties that bind you together are deeper than some financial benefit or ephemeral flattery.
Yes, brothers and sisters, friendship is a complex thing. There are many things that bring people together & sometimes it is the indescribable things that keep people together. Yet sometimes people express their love for you in quantifyable ways.
Ok, I am beating around the bush here. Basically, I ate a fantastic meal at a swanky restaurant & I wanted to tell the story of it. Here we go…
Adam & I got on from pretty much the moment we met at SMBC. We shared a passion for many things, one of which was meat. Of course, almost every guy loves meat, but we REALLY love meat. My love stems from an almost carniverous diet, his from the opportunities he has had for fine dining in his corporate life.
So, Adam had been telling me throughout 2006 that he would take me to the most highly esteemed steak restaurant in Sydney “Kingsleys” at some point. Of course, in the day to day banter that goes on at college, I had no reason to think that this was a “set in stone” kind of promise, rather, it was a “I’d love to do this but… well… you know” kind of promise.
So, Adam is done with college. Adam is now married & back to work, but on Wednesday afternoon, Adam was out to lunch with yours truly.
One filet mignon with sauteed mushrooms, one Asahi lager, and one cab-sav later, I was a truly impressed & thoroughly sated individual.
Of course, afterwards, I considered the fact that the meal for 2 that we had could have bought TEN meals for two at “Jasmine’s” the Lebanese place that I love so much, in the “bad-lands” of Lakemba.
But then I realised that that was not the point. They were different meals and different experiences, and in the end, the financial side of it didn’t really factor. What was nice was that my mate, the one with a thousand other pressures on his new life, wanted to come good on something he had talked about, and wanted to be part of an excitiing experience with me.
The pleasure of the company & the excitement of uncharted territories (and steak actually cooked mid-rare) will be remembered long after the cost of lunch and a couple of drinks is forgotten!
Ok, if you are looking for more entertainment, following you will find a poem I like & a couple of pics from Camp by clicking on the link below.

Continue reading “Friends” →

I guess since the Cronulla riots on Christmas 2005, there has been a little increased tension between Muslims & Christians in Sydney. There have been some muslim clerics whose willingness to speak before they thought have given muslims an even worse reputation.
Of course, I have been house sitting in the suburb of Lakemba, which is probably the suburb in Sydney with the largest Islamic population (certainly the largest mosque). It also has a reputation (earned) of having one of the higher crime rates in the city.
Yesterday, one of my neighbours, a young muslim guy of about 16 knocked on my door & asked me if I knew anything about bikes. I said “a little” & ended up outside his house for half an hour changing an inner tube on his mountain bike & chatting to him about stuff in general.
It was one of those little passages of time that you really enjoy in life. I was impressed that he was happy to knock on the door of a relative stranger (I certainly wouldn’t have done so at his age) then he sat & kept me company for the whole time & chatted to me about my life & telling me a little about his.
I was happy enough just to help out, but I ended up scoring a free soft drink, and, after I said I didn’t mind spices or Pakistani food, I also scored some lovely spiced kebabs.
It’s always a pleasant surprise when the media tells you to expect hostility & instead you get a free, and tasty dinner!

I’m sitting in the SMBC library now. Of course, I needed to do work anyway, so it wasn’t a hard decision to come into college, but I have to say that the air conditioning was a big draw card. While you Northern Hemisphere people are copping a bit of a chill from what I head (particularly the Americans) it has been hovering up to 39 (100 farenheit) here in Sydney…
I love the house I am looking after in Lakemba, but it doesn’t have Air Conditioning.
Again, the AC was a draw card to visiting the Library…
Yesterday’s sermons went well (one sermon, two venues). I spoke a little too fast in the evening service, but felt I did a better job with the sermon as a whole though. John 10:1-18 was a really fun passage to do. Particularly, because you can go down two distinct tracks. Rather than focussing on Jesus as the Good Shepherd, an idea I suspect that most of us grasp easily, I was really taken by Jesus as the gate. The fact that He is very clear in making exclusive claims of himself. It is only through Christ that we can come into a proper relationship with God.
I was particularly struck by how the pharisees (and we ourselves) have a small picture of who Jesus us. The question that was floating in the air, which I too have been asked many times, is “how can you be so arrogant as to claim that Jesus is the ONLY way?”. While studying I was struck by the thought that if it is arrogant to claim that just one man could be the only way to God, then it is equally ignorant to believe that if God has come down in the flesh, that we would be able to approach God through any other medium!
God-become-man to rescue his people. Providing a gateway between us and God by laying his life down for us (being the Good Shepherd).
Anyway, enough of a potted summary. Now to answer a couple of quick questions and then deliver a couple of pictures for you visual types before getting back into some work.
Justin: Sermon went OK. I have another two shots at it next week, so hopefully I will improve further.
Dave: Wine & sermon prep at the same time. You just have to drink slowly, lest on impinges on the ability to perform the other…
Lara: Yep, it certainly is a moleskine. In fact, I have two!! One is a diary, the other is a little notes book. I write down little things that I like & want to use again in them…
Now for some pictures. I wont explain them, I’ll let you just enjoy (or critique if you want) them.

A pleasant evening to be had.
A sermon to write, a glass of white to drink & a nice book to read.

A little product placement for AYW…

I have to say that I really don’t like clowns.
You never know what those nefarious creatures are thinking. There is always a smile on the surface and no-doubt devious, murderous plans swimming behind that cheshire grin & wild eyes.
However…
I will make an exception with these two (in the picture below). The camp that I did over New Years had a “tradesman” theme & I thought this was one of the more interesting & original trades to come dressed up as.