Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the SDA youth Camp at Lake Monduran, and just wanted to quickly share with you what it was like…
(note: I am omitting many things this is just a super-quick overview)
Arrived and setup just before Sabbath but as the speakers Continue reading
Well, I have just returned from Cairns AYC it was truly an inspiring and challenging experience, there is much that I would love to share with you all, but it will have to wait…
Whilst at AYC I felt that the Holy Spirit was calling me to pay more attention to developing my talents, and as I will be Continue reading
In recent weeks I have discussed this topic with a few people, so I figured, why not share my thoughts with the world.
Death is a peculiar thing, it is common as birth, it is going on around us all the time, yet we never seem to get accustomed to it, it totally shocks each one of us when it knocks on our door.
Whilst flying to and from NSW I had a revelation on the plane, Continue reading
Rather than sermon notes, this post is in regard to door knocking. On the Saturday afternoon we all trod the pavement for practical evangelism. Sydney is indeed a tough place to do this, let me tell you what happened… Continue reading
Dwight Nelson 2 – Prayer
After his first message, there was am amazing passionate time of prayer, which set the mood for the whole conference, unifying us, making us of one accord, so you can imagine, the next time Pastor Dwight took to the pulpit we were indeed paying attention.
Picking up where he left off in Acts it was declared that the secret of the amazing success of the early church in the book of acts was quite simply the undervalued activity of prayer. Continue reading
Well, thanks to all the walking of yesterday I didn’t surface until the rediculous time of 9am
At which time a performed my morning rituals and went in search of internet, the most cost-effective location was indeed the “lounge room” I had sat in the day before in the Pier Center.
So after doing battle with the note feeder and the caretaker re-booting the system, I was away, (setup was a string of dell thin-clients from what i can tell) I buzzed through messages from my fine readers (this means you) and posted the first 3 days of the trip on this very blog.
After I had my fill of the internet, i scooted off in search of food, a kebab was what I felt like and indeed, a kebab was what i found, but not just any kebab… THE greatest kebab known to this connoisseur of kebabs… it was enough to fill me up, it was moist yet did not fall apart at the end, did not leave a greasy residue in my mouth, and to top it all off, it tasted fantastic.
After that, I did retire to my room, as my feet were less than impressed about the caining I had given them the day before, I watched a bit of TV then hooked into some serious reading of the books I brought with me, the Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel (required reading for ANYONE in my humble opinion) Satisfied by Mark Finlay, my Bible and Identity Wars by Adrian Ebens, this was followed by a healthy dose of music. At this time (8:00pm) Mum and Dad arrived, after settling them in, we went to “La Pizza” for dinner,a nice Italian woodfired Pizza place a couple of blocks further along the esplanade.
All up it was a great evening and we ended up getting home and crashing by about midnight.
I surfaced sometime around 7am, Had my morning devotions, then switched from recouperate mode to explore mode, I first found my way to the esplanade (which was a nice stroll) then I decided to hang a right and head back into town where the main shopping center is, on the way I saw a massive sign, “GUITARS AND UKE’S” so I couldnt help myself, I went in, had a look, took some photos and talked to the owner, “Brent” played the bongo’s and an electric Uke, which was an interesting experience
As I moved on, there was another music store, less than 50 metres down the street, but this one was different, more DJ gear etc, but not a cool as the first one, I did hang around long enough to play all the different kinds of Bass guitar they had, and answer a call from a very good friend, after that, I did eventually find Cairns Central shopping center, monsterous place that it is, when I had been one end to the other I decided to return to the food court for lunch, there were many choices, subway, KFC, curry, carvery, maccas, JB-hifi, keba- huh?… yeah, thats what I thought, why is there a JB-HiFi in the middle of the food court? but I knew something about this JB… it was not just any JB, it is the JB of my fellow denizen of the online community: Speedlabs … some say his forehead was erected for the sole purpose of art, others say he is a luminary of tech culture, and can only be contained by an egg of the spotted newt, all we know, is he is called The Morris. [For those of you not familiar with “Top Gear” “The Stig” “AtomicMPC” or “Speedlabs” I don’t expect any of the above to make sense to you]
I eventually spotted the man and called to him “Morris!” I was met with “Yes…” and a blank stare, which I expected “I’m Glitch” ah! that made sense to him, we had a bit of a chat which was cool, I finally got to meet the guy etc. after that I ended up having lunch and continuing on my way, I took a more direct route back and found another cooler area of town, an huge plaza, terminating near the large pier shopping/dining/office/lifestyle center which is where I am sitting at the moment in some very convenient lounges, typing this post.
After retiring to my room I received a message from Morris, so, as per volley of messages, I returned to the esplanade to meet Morris at a cafe, it was great, we had a chance to catch up,etc we then wandered the esplanade for quite a while, he is actually a pretty awesome guy, now I know him better I have much respect for the man. however, before parting ways a photo must be taken…
Again I returned to my room, after a little relaxing I decided I should eat something, so I made the 20minute round trip to maccas and then crashed.
‘KA-THUD’ my eyes flew open… it was… around 2:30am and we had just pulled into Rockhampton station the thud was the train pulling the handbrake on I guess, but it was just enough to dislodge my head from the head rest… I checked the movies but they were replaying the same ones I had watched a few hours earlier. after a while, sleep returned and I was out until around 5:30 when the people started to stir to life around me.
It was daylight now, so I decided to do some exploring, I returned to where I left my big bag on the rack to inspect that murky corridor in the light of day, it turns out it was the restrooms/cleaning closet etc which was so interesting, I was compelled to try the other direction which was more my scene… ‘The Dining Car’ where I talked to a couple of people, one guy has moved out Biggenden way, and has caught the Tilt Train to Bowen to bring a car down, poor guy wasn’t real well either, but seemed appreciative of the conversation.
After that I retuned to my seat and took in some tunes via my iPod, what a difference it made, I went from being comfortable to being totally chilled out. however, in perfect syncro, the rest of the train burst out laughing… this was indeed an odd occurrence, as I could not see anything I found to be a real rib-tickler, then I realized, the source of these jollies was a movie that was playing, so I hooked up and joined them in sporadic but syncronized laughter… I dont know what the movie was but it is worth finding and buying, it was about this guy who competes in a marathon to win his girl back from some high flying pain in the neck… if anyone can ID this movie please let me know what it’s called.
After a little more music, my lunch arrived: oriental chicken and noodles in blackbean sauce (YUM) it was chased down by a wildberry crumble and a small pot of vanilla ice-cream.
As the afternoon wore on, I started chatting to the lady sitting across the aisle from me, turns out her name is Donna (seemed to be in her early 40’s) and she was traveling home with her daughter, she works in admin at their local hospital and had been in Mackay to see her Dad for the first time in about 5 years.
Thanks to some segway I have since forgotten, she asked me what I believed and why, so I shared my story with her, spelt out my reasoning and the research I had undertaken, by the time I was done, I had erected quite a monument, a verbal monolith if you will, of my belief structure.
I then returned the question, she seemed a little unsure and told me that she was a ‘jehovah’s witness’ I found this an odd experience because most JW’s I have come across are quite sure of their beliefs, and vocal about it, but she was happy to have some open discussion about it which was excellent, when we arrived at her station she told me she would be going to do some research on some of the points I made. oh how I love the free exchange of ideas…
After her departure, my one legged friend(i later discovered his first dame is “Burn”) took her seat and struck up a conversation, we covered just about everything, when he was young he wanted to be a carpenter, but had an aptitude for electronics so his parents pushed him in that direction, he got his degree in electronics at RMIT, became an Instrument calibration expert, he worked on a project during the Vietnam war which would analyze the Parabolic trajectory of a missile to be able to target where it came from, for return fire, accurate to 12metres.
However, just before he was actually sent over to Vietnam, he lost his leg in basic training, he then cut From that story and told me about the youth work he did in Ryde (Sydney) helping them get their lives back on track.
In the end he told me why he was on the train, many years ago, he had broken his forearm in 2 places, after 6 months of it not healing right, they eventually pinned it, during this time he could not work or care for himself that well, so he moved back in with his parents and went to Church as that was about all he could do, because he could not drive either, one of the girls from church was playing taxi for him to get to-and-from church, he ended up marrying that girl and they were on their way to cairns to celebrate their coral wedding annaversary.
He was a real character, the hostess was walking down the aisle asking “Any rubbish?” he piped up and said “yeah but she just went to the dining car” the hostess made the obvious threat “oh well, i’ll be sure to tell her that when I see her” but his reply really cracked me up… “Go for it, thats why i’ve got a wooden leg, it’s easier to put my foot in my mouth”
Anyway, we finally made it to Cairns just on dark, I hailed a Taxi and FINALLY made it to my accommodation, there was however, a slight hitch, as I did not have the credit card which ‘booked’ the room on me, I had to throw myself on the manager’s mercy (along with a few hundred dollars of my cash as collateral) before they would give me my room… in any case, I made it, showered, watched a bit of tellie and crashed around mid-night.
Mum and Dad brought me to the station after choir practice on monday night, of course, while waiting to board we started singing “This train is bound for glory” (for those of you who know that Praise chorus) as I got onto the train I was partially lost, as I was in a corridor with seemingly locked compartments and one luggage rack, when I found my way to the end I was in no better condition as there was just a locked glass door, which I could not see through or open.
However! there was a talkative guy who appeared behind me and had played this game before, as he put his bag on the luggage rack he asked me “So… this train is bound for glory is it?” I replied “Sure is.” with a chuckle he then asked “are you bound for glory?” I gave a grin “Most definately.” he continued to chuckle as he turned and pressed the huge, bright Yellow button that said “Press to open Door” (thats me, Mr. Observant) and we both walked through into the cabin where he was kind enough to point out my seat.
It turns out he was a serious athlete back in his hayday… so fit, his heart-rate was about 40bpm, somehow he lost his leg which put an end to that, but I kid you not, he walks so well on his artificial one he gets around this jostling train better than I do…
Anyway I stayed awake watching the movie until after midnight and playing with the in-seat screen, churning out the first of my many Twitter status updates. until I finally dozed off…
Vehicles, in one way or another, we all use them, getting from “A” to “B”, work to play and all those other fine trips.
One would think I would have taken an interest in cars, due to the fact my Dad is Mr Mechanic Extraordinaire, however, this never really occurred, until I got a car of my own, then I started to take some interest in the topic, sadly, the taste I have developed is one for the exotics, Aston martin, Maserati, BMW, Mercedes. Needless to say anything i like is insanely expensive, I have been content thus far, to drool over these fine examples of power and styling…
That is until the recent petrol price-hike, my trusty ’91 Hilux has begun to dig into my shallow hip-pocket at a furious pace… this caused me to start looking at smaller cars, I quickly drew a conclusion, if you want a car that is good on economy, you are reduced to some of the ugliest cars on the market, now it is not that i want something prestigious or expensive, I just want something that doesn’t look like it was styled by a blind guy with one arm, who insists on being called “Tex”.
One may ask why this is so important, well if you don’t already know, I am a Graphic/Web/Print designer (in training) and as a result design is very important to me, right up there with economy and ahead of performance.
This Quandary sent me in search of a “Drivers car” which was economical, indeed a task easier said than done, I narrowed it down to a few smaller yet cool cars, after which, I threw the top few out of the running for simply being outright crazy expensive, I continued to simmer the mix down to come up with my next goal purchase…
Great handling, good economy, insanely good looks and nice performance, how do you beat that?
While this goal will take me a while to achieve, i think it will be worth it to my warped sense of style,
If any of you out there have had a drive of the Mini Cooper since its Acquisition by BMW, I would be very interested to hear your thoughts.
Sorry for my Ramblings i never said this blog would make sense now did i?
|G|Luke|
Musings of Luke 