The Ashes officially kicks off tomorrow and my bet is that the local boys will really give it to the Poms, in a nice kind of way. For those of you with too much time on your hands and love the game check out these web versions,
What’s your favourite?
The last couple of weekends have seen some local festivals in the heart of Ferntree Gully. Saturday just gone was our annual Ferntree Gully Village Fair, a great local community event in which I help run. The weather was perfect and it is great to be involved in many ways, we had a Ferntree Gully Chaplaincy stall, and Foothills stuff as well as running the main stage. I got heaps of practice from the weekend before which was our Ferntree Gully North Primary School Fete, where I again ran the stage and was the MC for the day.
It's great to be involved in local events, and there is a great sense of community around here with many people wanting to help out.
Its also coming into the Christmas season now and we are in the swing of hosting our 5th Ferntree Gully Christmas Day Lunch, for those locals with nowhere to go. We expect some 150 people to come along and again it is a great way of serving our local community and especially at Christmas time to remember and honor "the least" among us as we celebrate Jesus birth not in a palace but in a smelly barn.
After many years of waiting, a false start earlier this year and 13 hours of lining up, it finally happened.
U2 came to town and I was there. Andy and I lined up and spent the better part of the day having U2 chats with people from all over the world.
What a night, they were fantastic, our position was brilliant and I even got a chance to meet Bono before the show. All in all a great effort, and what's more i've even got the T-shirt to prove it.
The
wait is almost over, after a false start and having to get new tickets it will all be worth it on Sunday night. Finally get to see
U2 again, all reports in the press say their tour so far has been great, great that it will also coinside with this weekends
G20 events, well timed Bono...
The other day I went in for my
Secret Dad’s Stuff class at out local Family Birth Centre, as I met with the midwives there I was confronted with a dead baby, born just a few hours earlier. It was a bit of a shock, not something you expect to see everyday. My thoughts raced from how must the parents be dealing with all of this, to the midwife who was dressing the young baby, to the fathers to be I was just about to spend the next few hours with, to my own children.
We don’t deal real well with death in our culture, we tend to hide it, not talk about it or dress it up with nice smells. We live in such a privileged place where very few babies die unnecessarily, yet in many parts of the world huge numbers don’t get to see their 1st birthday. It reminds me again of the words of the
U2 song,
Crumbs from your table "Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die"
As I had to confront my own uncomfortableness I again chose to resolve to try and do my bit to work for justice and equality and following Jesus in whatever small ways I could.
This literally was the result of last Saturday’s day of cricket. Old age does funny things to your reflexes, like trying to hit a ball coming at you with a piece of wood instead of your unprotected thigh. All in all great fun though, Rory and I played our first game together and actually batted together for 10 overs putting on 27 runs, the highest partnership of our innings, Rory top scored with 18, while I played out a very patient 9 of 20 overs. A little frustrating, but when you come in at 7/39, the role was just to hang around. A good father and son combo I thought to start with, and I didn’t even run him out.
Been home for a few days now, it kind of messes with your head coming back to Oz after spending time in Klong Toey, although I have hit the ground running hard with many things on the go including our local Ferntree Gully Fair, our school Ferntree Gully North Fete, UNOH’s annual benefit dinner, not to mention our Christmas Day Lunch, and there’s a U2 concert thrown in there somewhere as well, luckily no preparation involved from this end.
Finishing teaching English was fantastic, we had a steady group of 25 kids and I taught with josh and Sandra, 2 great guys from Melbourne. Was hard saying goodbye, but a little easier for me knowing that I will see some of them again in 6 months time. Some of their living situations are tragic, yet it was great seeing the joy on their faces each day during our time with them. It kinda reminds me again that we consume far too much, and in our culture it doesn’t even make you happy.
On the last Saturday, I had my first serious motorbike ride in Bangkok, I borrowed Rods bike, some little 250cc thing and with 4 others headed down south, 1 hour out of Bangkok. Riding through the city was an experience, no room to hesitate, was a real blast, even got to relax a bit. We went to an ancient city, and rode around for the day, on borrowed push bikes, was great to have a day with Rod and his mates, a real boys day out.
Thanks to all who followed the journey with me and the others, the Foothills crew went well and were challenged to the core, was great also to see Rory in action in Klong Toey, more to share soon…
After many years of waiting, a false start earlier this year and 13 hours of lining up, it finally happened. U2 came to town and I was there. Andy and I lined up and spent the better part of the day having U2 chats with people from all over the world. 
The wait is almost over, after a false start and having to get new tickets it will all be worth it on Sunday night. Finally get to see U2 again, all reports in the press say their tour so far has been great, great that it will also coinside with this weekends G20 events, well timed Bono...
