The Chronicles Of…

It’s been a bit of a hectic week. Had quite a few things to do, and got a few of them done. One of them made the (a local) paper(s), but I’m not linking to it from here because I’d rather keep my personal and “professional” lives separate please.

In any case, because I’m a big tough guy with super genes, on Wednesday afternoon I started feeling a tad poorly. I was in bed by about 7:30pm and awake with sweats and chills by about 9pm. This sort of continued until about 11pm Thursday (I was only out of bed for a few hours on Thursday afternoon). As usual, I was convinced I had some virus that was going to murder me in fairly short order, so I laid about feeling sorry for myself.

Friday I had to go to work (which turned out being a whole day sitting around waiting to do my part, and not getting on at all, so I have to go back in a couple of weeks instead), but I was feeling a little bit better. Friday night I tempted fate and ordered a pizza.

This is how you know I was actually sick – for the first time I can remember (so, today), I ordered pizza, and only ordered one pizza between the two of us.

Saturday was a nice day with family and friends, but 10pm in bed and I still felt like it was a very late night.

Let’s see how Sunday goes with family functions etc…

When did my tastes begin to change?

The other night the wife made us a chocolate pudding for dessert and I genuinely asked for half a serve, because it was “a bit rich”.

I am sickening.

Today I dealt with a group of people who were so unpleasant, that I honestly don’t think I can bring myself to feel any sort of “love” towards them whatsoever. Although I want to be all nice and Christian and loving, and pray blessings upon them, I fear that it’s just “the right words” that I know I’m supposed to think/do, and that I really don’t want any sort of good for them at all.

Obviously I won’t speak about their identities in any way, but not a single person who had anything to do with any of them seems to have anything positive to say, and they are responsible for so much misery and frustration for so many people, that I just want them to go away.

To a desert or a rock in the centre of an ocean, or something.

And that’s me being particularly gracious after hours of calming down.

I really worry for myself, in that I just don’t know how I can get past this.

They’re back from the sleep clinic, and so far so good.

The boy has been sleeping very well for the most part, and tonight went down without any fighting or crying at all. I truly hope this stays consistent. The only real obstacle to that, is me… I’m on daddy day care duty all day tomorrow (Monday) and I hope that not having mum around won’t stuff up his routine. I also hope that I’ll be disciplined enough to keep him on schedule.

Does anyone want to come and help?

This weekend the wife is taking the baby to a clinic-type-place where nurses and midwives will attempt to help him to learn to sleep. Going to sleep should surely be the easiest thing in the world. You just lay down, close your eyes, and breathe slowly and deeply until you realise you’re awake again (hopefully quite a few hours later).

Of course, it’s not always that easy. I usually have no problem getting to sleep, in fact if you put me on the couch in front of a TV show that I’m really keen to watch there’s every chance I’ll wake up a few hours later with cold feet and a sore neck, wondering where everyone has gone, and why my tea is so cold. I’m aware that many people, however, have terrible trouble sleeping on a regular basis. On the few occasions I’ve had trouble sleeping, it’s usually been because I’ve got something important on my mind. Either I have a big event coming up that I’m nervous about, or I’m replaying some previous event over in my mind from every angle (usually trying to figure out how I could have handled it better). I have huge sympathy for those people who are constantly troubled by insomnia, because I know how difficult it can be to do the most basic task when you haven’t had enough sleep. I suppose that’s why the military and other similar organisations use sleep deprivation as part of their training and selection processes. If you can perform under that kind of pressure, then you can handle anything! I believe it can also be used as a means of torture. I know that I’d be tempted to tell my secrets to anyone who’d let me get some rest after a few days without sleep.

In any case, I have no idea what the baby is stressed about, or whether he’s trying to get some sort of information out of us, but he’s not very keen on sleeping, so hopefully these people can sort him (and us) out. I’m working over the weekend and most of next week, so I won’t be there with them. I suppose that means the nurses will say that the only way he can sleep is for me to do some sort of difficult task, just to punish me for my non-attendence.

In any case, he’s gone to bed now, and it all sounds quiet. Phew.

THE PIT

(Dedicated to those who struggle with homosexuality)

A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.

Respectable people came along and said:

“We don’t associate with pit-dwellers.”

An empathist came along and said:

“I really for you in that pit.”

A sociobiologist came along and said:

“You were born in your pit.”

A psychiatrist came along and said:

“It can be very destructive to remove people

from pits they were born in.”

A psychologist came along and said:

“Accept your pit, that way you’ll be happy.”

A gay activist came along and said:

“Fight for the right to stay in your pit.”

A politician came along and said:

“Discrimination against pits is illegal.”

A researcher came along and said:

“What an interesting pit.”

A religious fundamentalist came along and said:

“You deserve your pit.”

A religious liberal came along and said:

“Your pit is God’s beautiful gift to you.”

A charismatic came along and said:

“Just confess you’re not in that pit.”

His mother came along and said:

“It’s your father’s fault you’re in that pit.”

His father came along and said:

“It’s your mother’s fault you’re in that pit.”

His wife came along and said:

“It’s all my fault you’re in that pit.”

But Jesus, seeing the man, loved him,

and reaching into the pit

put his arms around him and pulled him out.

(from Briar Whitehead, Craving for Love, pp 87-88)

I don’t have access to the statistics right now, but I think that I remember reading some time ago that you were far more likely to be killed or injured on a building site than you are as a soldier or cop. Of course, it tends to make “better” news when the fatality is one of the latter, because it usually suggests that there’s been some sort of action.

This morning a bloke who works in one of those industries went to work. I don’t know if he had a chance to say goodbye to his (reportedly six) children or his partner, but I hope that he did. A few hours later he was dead. I’m sure that in time a lot more details will be revealed, and that someone will be blamed. There will probably be a raft of new safety lectures and policies introduced for the organisation that he worked for. I dare say that a lot of talkback radio hosts will be baying for someone’s blood… just whose, will depend on a few of those details, or at least the ones that get reported.

But before we have too much of a chance to play the blame game, I’d just like to state that I truly hope that this bloke made a point of saying goodbye to his family, and I hope that he’s happy with the decisions he made during his life as to his stance with his Maker. I try to always make a point of kissing my loved ones goodbye before I leave the house to go to work (no matter how early in the morning it is), and I believe that old saying about not letting the sun go down on an argument is a fairly good rule to live by.

Obviously I’m slightly more interested in this particular matter than many people are, but it doesn’t matter what you do with your time, we never know what’s around the corner.

Sorry for the downer.

Hello all,

Here’s a well overdue update, be warned though, I have no idea how interesting or informative it might be at this stage…

Last week I started my new job, thats the job I applied for last November, finally everything came together and I was able to commence. I work on a fortnightly basis of 3 days one week and 2 the next, or as I like to put it to some people I have a four day weekend one week followed by a five day one the following week.

So far it’s a great job, I’m a Speech Pathology Therapy Aide and basically just support the speech pathologists any way they need.

Currently I fill the rest of the week with doing stuff around the house but also have been helping friends do stuff when needed. I’m really enjoying having the extra time to those things that I couldn’t before.

I left my previous job just prior to Christmas and after a week or do in Sydney spent time at home, and a little at the farm, again just doing stuff I haven’t had time to do in ages. It’s been great.

So from here I hope to eventually pick up a day or two a week doing something else to earn a few extra dollars, or Nat will get back in to massage more.

But for now I hope to spend another couple of weeks doing this, sorting out exactly where we’re at and enjoying having a little more time on my hands.

You might have seen this already, but I love this!

Talk about cultural exegesis, if you ask me this is spot on!

Finally here is a blog post, possibly my 2nd for 2011… this is to update the “other 2″ people who still stop by and maybe read thechroniclesof.net, and partly to allay that pang of guilt I feel when I see my contributions are conspicuously missing amongst the posts of Pete & Chris…

So, what do you want to know?

Currently I’m in Forest Hill, London, UK visiting my sister and her family for the entire month of December. This is my 3rd trip to the UK in a decade which is as surprising to me as it is to you, I honestly thought that after the visit for Mel’s wedding in 2006 I wouldn’t be back here until 2050, but parents spending your inheritance early has some perks!

We’ve more or less staying in England this time around with a weekend visit to Manchester for a Champion’s League match between Man City & Bayern Munich (2-0 BTW and it was excellent! Manchester is a surprisingly beautiful city even if it is bitterly cold), a week long visit to Norfolk staying at the Cranmer Cottages, and a 3 day visit to Berlin to see Michael & Sarah Isaak (which I know is not in England but I did say “more or less”) and we did go to Berlin Legoland which incredible! I could spend days there. I’ll put up some photos.

2011 has been a good year, we’ve successfully managed to not get cancer, lose any children, get divorced, or become destitute, “but for the grace of God go I”. Highlights have been moving Salt Youth Group to a different time and the much bigger church hall and managing growth to fill the space. Bazz is still a champion minister to work with. My friend’s are more gracious than ever. I continue to love & cherish the wonderful people of All Saints, and their generosity to me continues to highlight the generosity that God himself has displayed. On the flip side, we’ve had a number of close friends and acquaintances struggle with faith in Jesus, not a bad thing in itself but some look like they’re losing the struggle, some even giving up, and that always shakes me and Fi… I’ve had 3 valued friend’s and youth leaders move away, and that comes with mixture of joy and sadness in itself (joy for them that is).

2012 is unknown, which is a dumb thing to say because the future is always unknown… But what I mean is that 2012 is shaping up  as vastly different from the routine of life which I’ve become accustomed in the last few years. I’m heading off to Moore Theological College for 2 year to study a Bachelor of Theology. Depending on you’re opinion of Moore college (& I’m discovering people have very strong opinions), you may see that as a good or bad move. I’m obviously anticipating that it’ll be a good move in helping me further know God, his Word, his Son, his Spirit and how I can be a better minister of his gospel to his people.

In my favour, I have been given a credit for the entire first year of the course because of the Diploma in Theology I’ve already obtained through Youthworks College; I also know 3 Moore College staff personally from church and they’re really warm, wise and lovely people; All Saints is supporting me financially, I love the Bible and have 7 years of full-time ministry behind me. Not so advantageous is that I’ve never studied at degree level, I’m coming into the second year of a course that I last studied 3 years ago, and I feel mildly retarded.

You can pray for me about that.

In other news, I bought Scala & Kolacny Bros off the UK iTunes (they did the version of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ for the Social Network film) and it’s great! They cover Coldplay, U2, Alanis Morrisette, and Metallica among others. Hauntingly beautiful. And I’m listening to “Les Fleur” by 4hero on repeat as well.

For Christmas I got a remote control helicopter from Hamley’s Toy Store on Regent Street (after crashing the first one & getting a free replacement I’m getting quite pro), the Pearl Jam 20 DVD (YES!!!!!), special edition of Kick Ass on DVD, QI board game, a book, and loads of food and love.

Oh yeah and I just bought 2 motorbikes (back in Sydney from a friend of a friend), crazy! They’re both 1983 Honda CX500s. One is complete stock and registered, the other is a 95% complete cafe racer project which I’ll finish off and road register. I then plan to sell the stock one to dad and keep the cafe racer. C R A Z Y.

Thankyou, you’ve been a wonderful audience.

Need anything from the UK?

See you in the New Year!