I hate goodbyes.
The next time I see Dave, he will have spent a year in New Zealand. If he comes home that is. Bizarre.
Tonight I hung out with Nic & Dave and it made me think of when the 3 of us hung out with Jill before she moved to Canberra. And then there were three. And now two…
How times just keep on changing.
What a strange world we live in.
Yesterday I woke up and turned my laptop computer on in my longe room in quiet Frenchs Forest to discover that 11,000 people had died in a tsumani across the ocean. Throughout the day the number rose by thousands and this morning its 24,000.
Mind blowing. Too far away to be touchable. Too real to ignore. Too painful to dwell on.
Lest we forget how fragile we are…
-Sting
Yesterday I did the Online Assessment for the Alliance Francaise French language courses and got 82%. Not bad. Maybe I haven’t lost it all yet. 
Today really doesn’t feel like Sunday.
I just received a French e-card from Jean-Yves in Montpellier. How fun! A Christmas card with snow on it from someone in the Northern Hemisphere. Nice.
Joyeux Noel!!
Why am I so tired? I think Christmas took it out of me.
On Thursday I decided I love Newtown. Had coffee with Guin in a trendy cafe and Thai dinner with Jen. (We got given a Christmas present of nail clippers with Thai Pothong Newtwon printed on them!) Was great to see Jen. I miss her. We discussed the validity of celebrating Christmas over drinks. I’m still thinking about what I think.
Christmas seemed to come and go real quick.
I liked the challenge of doing the prayers towards the end of the Christmas Day service. It made me really focus on Jesus and his birth and what it means for all of us. And to stay in tune with His Spirit and what he wanted me to pray. I think what I liked thinking about this Christmas was the fact that in Jesus, God came near. I like that.
Families are a strange phenomena.
And my brain can analyse an awful lot in the space of one day.
This year I decided to not discuss the Christmas present exchange with my various family members and set myself the task of thinking of ideas myself rather than being told what to buy. This was a somewhat riskier process but so much funner. I enjoyed buying. I enjoyed giving. That’s a nice change.
Christmas night with friends was great.
Too much chocolate. Oops.
And this morning was the traditional Boxing Day breakfast of Christmas pudding and this year I was clever enough to bring home some brandy custard too. Oh yeah.
Tonight I’m leading church. Not feeling very inspired but I’m sure it’ll come. I wonder if people will come.
Apparently it’s really hot outside, but I’m still feeling quite cold. Mmm. Might be time for some sun.
On Thurs night I went with Karen to see Ben in the Messiah at Town Hall. I wanted to sing along. It took me back to my days of singing in the traditional choir of the church of my childhood. Karen and I are a little concerned we only noticed the Compass camera pointing in our direction half way through the night. We were yawning and being pretty naughty at times. Might not be too good a look for the star’s wife. Hopefully they didn’t catch us…or they’ll edit well :). I saw someone there from school who I haven’t seen in 8 years. That’s the 3rd school person I’ve seen in a random place in the last week. Can’t believe I was at school 8 years ago. The train trip home, Ben, Karen & I had a reminisce about when we met and what happened since. I like Ben & Karen.
Thurs morn I made my most scariest purchase of the year…swimmers. Go me.
Last night was the best. I sat in our final small group and listened to how God has changed people this year. 3 out of 6 people shared how they became Christians this year. We cheered. And I cried. I live for that.
Today was an amazing day really. It started with a visit to Carlyn’s. We had brunch in a Maltese Cafe and a choose your own adventure smoothie in a juice bar. We then went wandering through Surry Hills and ended up standing at the top of a massive government housing block with a view over the city. Carlyn proceeded to tell me stories of the people she knows who live there…drugs, crime, suicide, broken relationships.
I live in a bubble. I’d like to open my eyes more.
Had coffee with Matt this arvo. Well, iced chocolate to be precise. Matt manages to make me think. Amongst other things we managed to cover distribution of wealth, spiritual warfare in Uganda and Matt’s current view on the concept of church. It challenged me to keep thinking. And I like the fact that we can disagree and still be friends. Not that we did lots of disagreeing. But still, Matt’s good at that.
Tonight was dinner at Sarah’s and Irish dancing in a pub in Tempe. Sarah’s real Irish friend Nick taught me how to do an authentic ‘Kayle’ (or however you spell it). SO fun. At times I felt like I was flying being whisked around by the Irish boys. Made me think of my times in the Irish pub in Montpellier drinking Baileys and meeting people from all over the world.
How my world has shrunk in times of late.
1. How many chick house mates does it take to change a light bulb?
3 of us apparently. After many months of living in darkness we finally broached the task of trying to put bulbs in various sockets, climbing on various chairs and books, holding eachother up and giving moral support. We managed to break a few things and discover the bulbs don’t fit…but at least we have light in our hallway
2. How therapetuic is it to clean one’s room??
Oh yeah.
But more importantly,
3. how absolutely amazing are the Idea of North live????
I made it to the Basement tonight.
Oh so good.
I wanna be a singer.
That’s it, I’m quitting my day job.
Well, today was adventure day. Woke up. Met Nic for breakfast at the cafe on Curl Curl Beach. Sweet! Bible and pray on the headland. Appointment with massage therapist. After several bank adventures and a sunglasses purchase, I set off on what I like to call a Spirit-led drive - which took me north to Brooklyn where I sat with my laptop on a rock overlooking the bay and pondered the large impeding questions currently hanging over my life. My Spirit-led car then took me to Gosford, Avoca Beach (caramel milkshake), Terrigal, Erina Fair (how fun is shopping in a foreign shopping centre??) and back home down the freeway. Very fun. The homeward trip consisted of loudly blaring DC Talk for old times sake and Paul Colman live. Ah the memories. I made lots of noise, smiled and reminisced about the daggy, yet ingenious chories I did to DC Talk and Paul in the early days, and dreamed up remakes of Coloured People and Banquet Table.
And now here I am back in the world of reality having made some significant yet somewhat scary decisions. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of deciding to do things that you know God wants you to do, despite every part of you that is pulling you in the other direction. If find it quite exciting. Painful, nerve racking, but exciting. Well, coz I know that whatever’s on the other side is better than what I imagine right now. He’s done it before. I’m sure he’ll do it again.
Sometimes you gotta run
Into the arms of danger
Sometimes you gotta be
the sacrifice
Sometimes you gotta say
things that don’t come easy
They say just follow your heart
Yeah, but what if it lies
God only knows
How to play this game
Called life and living
So hold me
Light a candle in the window of pain tonight
Stop me
Running from the things that could save my life
- Paul Colman