dragon cross-stitch
When we first moved in, a friend put together a hand towel with “Congratulations” embroidered on it. Though never a fan of my nickname for my wife - “dragon” - today we received another cross-stitch with this dragon.
I’ll tell you some more about it a bit later.
hakea
According to my pedometer, I’ve put in 21,532 steps since getting up about 18 hours ago. It’s been a good day: a day of spending time with people. First, a breakfast in Oatley where the food was good, and the conversation better (the decaf didn’t really rate).
Then, after only [...]
friday night 1
teppanyaki (caringbah)
saturday 1
early morning flight
gold coast growers’ markets
visit friends
stand in an empty swimming pool
regret not photographing it, as it would have helped explain john the baptist for next weeks’ sunday school
mexican food in the gold coast hinterland
flown home
reconnected with an old friend
sunday 1
early wake up
breakfast at grind
sunday school
lunch at bowen island bakery
walked the [...]
When I signed up to do Sunday school teaching, I thought that I would simply be able to project my own high school experience on the high schoolers of today.
To some extent, this is true: the experience of going to high school is much the same, even if the class sizes, timetables, and schools are [...]
It’s been an unusual couple of weeks. While trying to upgrade my internet connection, instead of being upgraded, it was completely broken. What would I do with no internet access at home? As it turns out, many useful things. I take on more of the housework, I have the spare mental capacity to think about [...]
Why haven’t I posted in a while? Because Telstra can’t seem to get its bigpond broadband service working at home: I’ve just been told it will be another week before they can send out a technician. Thanks, Telstra.
The Christmas present that worked the best was last weekend. Keen to relive the curry night, and share the knowledge, I spent Saturday evening teaching my little brother how to make curry.
He hadn’t done much cooking before, and so it was a bit of an experience putting him through the paces. He was an excellent [...]
It’s never happened before, it probably won’t happen again. I was visiting a cafe I’d never been before, I placed my order, but I didn’t have enough cash in my wallet (I was a dollar short). I searched my bag for stray coins - nothing. I wasn’t sure where the nearest ATM was, or I [...]
Between studying and other commitments, the break between Christmas and New Year has actually been the longest time off work that I had in 2007! Despite any complaining you might read in the paragraphs that follow, it was really an excellent break.
Thinking that I was playing the piano on Sunday night (before Christmas), we had [...]
It occurred to me today that it’s been nine months since we moved in to our own home. Nine mortgage payments; nine months of train travel to and from a new train station. Nine months of putting bins out (something we never had to do while living in units).
In that time, we’ve had friends [...]
What a way to start the day: my brother (Jonathan) and I went for a run in Cronulla. He was really just humouring me, as the much stronger runner of the two of us, but was very polite in keeping to my own slow pace.
cronulla esplanade with jackFind more Runs in Cronulla, Australia
Afterwards, we went [...]
night plumbing
I’d literally just stepped up to the bar to order a drink when my phone rang, and kel asked “Where’s the water mains?”. Knowing that she probably hadn’t chosen that moment to be curious about the tap that shuts off the water supply to our house, I asked [...]
It’s been a good break, and I’m even feeling ready to get back into the swing of my normal routine again. Today will be my first day in the office after two weeks of leave, and I’ve largely managed to stay away from work for that whole period of time.
The first four days of holidays [...]
Just called into an internet kiosk while in the Gold Coast.
The exams are over, which is a great relief. I’m trying to improve my skills with cryptic crosswords, and generally wind down after a busy year. I’ve had a lot of success with that so far, but I’m eagerly anticipating this next week of relaxation [...]
Are all trolleys called frank?
When dropping my laptop in for a much-needed service (turns out the DVD drive is well-and-truly broken, and the hard drive may not have much longer to live), I noticed this shopping trolley.
Sure, I was surprised to find a trolley abandoned on a street near [...]
If you’ve been tracking my facebook status, you’ll know that I’m flat out at the moment between working, essay writing and studying for exams. I’m also trying to move my blogging activities onto a different computer, to make myself more productive, but I’ve found that using QuickSilver with Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) isn’t working [...]
Finally, all the surprises are over, and at last, I can talk about the last couple of weeks. Kel doesn’t generally like surprises, and so I was glad that she seemed to react well to most of the following, with the possible exception of the last surprise.
For Kel’s birthday, I took her out to dinner [...]
In the last few weeks at bible study, we’ve been looking at Romans 14 and 15; what to do when Christians disagree on non-crucial things.
Obviously, opinions are going to vary as to what’s non-crucial. Suggestions from the study notes, and the group, were such things as what to do with alcohol; who to baptise, [...]
Some weekends are quiet, some are filled with seeing people from various parts of life. We spent this weekend catching up with various people: Friday night was quiet - a chance to spend some time by ourselves.
On Saturday morning, we caught up with a couple of old friends we hadn’t seen since our wedding day [...]
Welcome to APEC… don’t get too close
Headed into Pyrmont this morning to have a look at an organic food markets, and - being so close to Darling Harbour - I thought I’d take a few photos of one of the 2.5m high fences that adorn our great city.
As you [...]