Yesterday was our great
Make Poverty History Party at the Arby in very sunny Ferntree Gully, in fact it got to 30 c during the arvo, which had many people scurrying for the shade. Was a great day, with a great turnout of people, over 600 I reckon, great trade stalls, great entertainment and some great messages. We were very privilidged to have Auntie Dot, indigenous elder of the
Wurundjeri tribe come and kick us off with a
welcome to country, we felt this was a real appropriate way to start.
Stephen Said from
Tear Australia, spoke and put in plain language what the
MPH day and
MDG's were all about.
John Smith from
God's Squad gave a very short and passionate
appeal to us all to look beyond oursleves at this time of year if we are to make a difference. The music was great,
Justin Grounds, Verity Reisson, Vox Congo with their African music and dancing and
Rivertribe kept the crowd entertained and dancing for hours. There were balloons, banners, people hanging out, playing cricket, eating our organic sausages, checking out the great market stalls, stilt walking, summo wrestling, playing giant snakes and ladders, all in all it was a fantatic day of awareness raising within our community. The
vibe was brilliant, a real market day, a touch of alternative in the foothills. Thank to all who came along and supported, helped out and made the day a great success. Lets all continue with our action by doing our little bit to help make poverty history.
Hillsong church are in the
news again this morning with yet another allegation of misappropriation of funds and handling of people. Maybe the media love to jump on to the tall poppy syndrome, maybe where there's smoke there's fire, or maybe something else is going on. What do you reckon?
Just come in from hanging out the washing, largely basketball and cricket uniforms from a full weekend of kids sport. Started on Friday night with Rory's under 16 basketball for the
Knox Cougars, they had a good win, 27-14 and Rory had a night out scoring 14 points himself. Saturday morning, all out the door by 7.30, dropped Jack and Rory off at different cricket grounds, then Ella to her Under 8's basketball with the
Ferntree Gully Falcons, their team is made up entirely of prep girls and this week they came second, 12-0, but the great news was for the first time in a season and half of basketball she actually touched the ball during the cause of play, in fact 3 times. So she was the winner. Back to the cricket games, Jacks under 13's team bowled the other team out for 75 and
Ferntree Gully are 2 for 25 at stumps with Jack on 1 not out, after coming in at 2 for 11, he also took a catch so is pretty happy with himself. Back to Rory's game, under 15's, a one dayer,
Ferntree Gully made 2 for 130 in 25 overs with Rory coming in with 2 overs to go and smashing a quick fire 20 not out, then they bowled the opposition out for 72. So they sit undefeated at the top of the ladder. He then went on to play seniors for the
FTG 6's in the arvo, was ran out for 4 and took a wicket with his first ball in the bowling department. Meanwhile Jack played his under 14's basketball in the arvo for
FTG Falcons and they also won 24-13, and so are well placed coming close to the Chrissie break. No wonder I'm exhausted...
Managed to pull together a bit of a coup today.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, isn't due for release until Boxing Day, December 26 but I was able to do a deal with our local
Metro Cinema in Boronia to get a special pre release for Friday night December 23, for 2 sessions, 6.30pm and 9.00pm. Tickets are available now and will go fast. All funds raised will go towards supporting our Ferntree Gully Chaplaincy fund in our local primary schools.
Our
Make Poverty History party is fast approaching. If your in the neighborhood feel free to drop in this Sunday, December 11 at the Arboretum on Dorset Rd Ferntree Gully. Commencing at 12.00 noon, there will be music from Vox Congo,
Rivertribe, Koori artist Illana Atkinson and others. We also have a range of Fair trade stalls, including
clothing, handcrafts and drinks
. Wurundjeri tribal elder Auntie Dot Peters will give a welcome to country,
John Smith,
Stephen Said and others will speak on the MDG's. The weather looks being a beauty as well. This morning
Mike and I managed to entertain local onlookers as we put up our banner for the weekend.
Here on the World Of Barro, we are proud and excited to announce the winner of our
Name the Caption competition. So without any further suspence the winner is, wait for it, Ash Barker. I mean how can you have a competition, guess what Ash is thinking and not give it to Ash. So Ash wins for his trouble a nice romantic lunch for two this coming Christmas day at the infamous Ferntree Gully Community Chrismtas Day Lunch. Congratulations Ash and may this be an encouragement to ya.
And again what was Ash thinking? Well according to Ash,
"What the hell is going on?"
Last Sunday morning, I with my good mates Marc and Andy, along with about 10,000 other people went for a leisurely 3km walk in Carlton. We were part of
The Long Walk, and it was an amazing time. Apart from the fact of the huge numbers that turned out, I felt humbled and privileged to be there is such amazing company with so many people all saying, we are one nation, we need to work together and therefore we need to address some pertinent issues facing our indigenous sisters and brothers. Hopefully this is the kick start needed to again put these issues back onto the publi
c agenda. It is very sad that over the past few years issues, reconciliation have been given such a low priority by our political leaders and society in general.
Michael Long's speech was truly inspirational. I am trying to get the transcript of it and will post it when I can, it had a sense of “Martin Luther King, I had a dream”, about it. Please read what the media had to say including
The Age,
Herald Sun and
ABC Online.
Got em, but a sad day for those trying to make a
buck on the side.
A full on weekend of celebrations. Started Friday with what was meant to be a nice sunny Melbourne day, ended up being a rainy cold event, so Ella's 6th birthday party with her 15, 6 year old friends ended up being inside. Girls are different to boys, I don't remember the boys having dancing parties. Still a great night had by all.
Then Saturday arvo I drove the 90 minute down to Phillip Island for a wedding I was doing. Was a bit of a family affair, as it was the sister of my sister in law on Helen's side. Had had a great time with Sam and Kate leading up to the wedding, and the day was a special one. It went off well with loads of positive comments, especially from the father of the bride, I have now
married 2 of his 3 daughters and he was wondering when the next one would be... a prophet I am not. Still was a great time to catch up with Helens brother Nigel and family, the photo is with me and my 2 16 year old neices. I also enjoyed the drive down and back on my own, just listening to the cricket and the
Aussies thrash, again, the Kiwis. It doesn't get much better than this.
Yesterday was our great Make Poverty History Party at the Arby in very sunny Ferntree Gully, in fact it got to 30 c during the arvo, which had many people scurrying for the shade. Was a great day, with a great turnout of people, over 600 I reckon, great trade stalls, great entertainment and some great messages. We were very privilidged to have Auntie Dot, indigenous elder of the Wurundjeri tribe come and kick us off with a welcome to country, we felt this was a real appropriate way to start. Stephen Said from Tear Australia, spoke and put in plain language what the MPH day and MDG's were all about. John Smith from God's Squad gave a very short and passionate 
appeal to us all to look beyond oursleves at this time of year if we are to make a difference. The music was great, Justin Grounds, Verity Reisson, Vox Congo with their African music and dancing and Rivertribe kept the crowd entertained and dancing for hours. There were balloons, banners, people hanging out, playing cricket, eating our organic sausages, checking out the great market stalls, stilt walking, summo wrestling, playing giant snakes and ladders, all in all it was a fantatic day of awareness raising within our community. The
vibe was brilliant, a real market day, a touch of alternative in the foothills. Thank to all who came along and supported, helped out and made the day a great success. Lets all continue with our action by doing our little bit to help make poverty history.
