January 2009 Archives

1. The weight of the camera in my hand.
2. The cat snuggled under my covers.
3. Skype conversations with family.
4. Rainy Days.
5. Coffee.
6. Waking up with a jazz standard stuck in my head.
7. French Perfume.
8. Foreign Currency.
9. Taking off and Landing.
10. Watching my boys [All Blacks] do the Haka.
11. Daffodils.
    
12. Driving long highways.
13. Living within walking distance of the ocean.
14. The God who is there.
15. Having a night in.
16. Quality movies.
17. The smell of rain on hot tarmac (it even has a name - petrichor)
18. Eating with chopsticks.
19. The scent of fresh herbs.
20. Salt and Vinegar on chips (and crisps).
21. Exploring new places (camera in hand, of course!).
22. Tweaking Movable Type.
23. Eggs Benedict.
24. Oh, how could I leave these to number 24?!!  Margaritas, baby...
25. Roast Lamb.  Is this a Kiwi thing?
    
26. Singing with my awesome choir.
27. Speaking to Woh Woh on the telephone.
28. Hanging out with Kirk and the family.
29. Washing that dried on the line - not in the drier.
30. Board Games.
31. Chilli and Chocolate - in the same mouthful.
32. Coke Zero - even better than the real thing.
33. Watching Tennis.
34. Making static designs come alive in HTML (it's a coder thing).
35. Renewing old acquaintances.
36. Crossword Puzzles.
37. Ticking off a long list of jobs to do.
38. Wrapping my brain around a complex problem and solving it.
39. Waking up without an alarm.
40. Slipping between clean sheets.
41. Cheese and Vegemite on toast.
42. Long slow kisses.
43. Champagne bubbles.
44. Cooking up a storm.
45. Arranging music for voices.
46. Living in Sydney, and by extension, Australia.
47. The view out onto my garden.
48. Hanging with my friends!
49. Being part of an awesome community.
50. The fact that my 3 favourite baristas make my coffee without asking what I want!

Seriously, I've seen people do 100 of these... who has time for that??

I know, I still haven't blogged about work, you know, my OLD work, formerly known as 'proper job'.  Truth is, the further I get away from it the less it matters. 

I'll simply say that I had wanted, very specifically, to leave well because there are any number of former employees of the church who have reason to be anti 'church as a workplace' (or maybe just anti 'our church') and who left, burning their bridges behind them and now feel unable/unwilling to even attend services there. On the other hand there are those who managed to disentangle themselves from the staff without actually burning those bridges and who, while aware of the church's faults, remain in fellowship (ergh, Christianese, sorry) there.

I'm happy to count myself in the latter.  It was a battle hard won as my last week at work was impossibly difficult and made me particularly glad I had written my leaving speech well in advance.  My emotional state when it was delivered was such the speech around the tears meant that were parts of it I wasn't sure I still believed. However, I do believe it was possible to leave well because of a conscious choice I made years ago to separate my service to God from the business of other people's service. 

People come and go in the name of God in any church and quite frankly, they bring with them all manner of f*cked-upness. All the while, God loves and accepts their service same as He did mine with all my f*ckedup-ness. At the end of the day, us God-botherers are called to represent Christ in the world so that others may see Him in us and may choose to follow Him too.  The thing is,  we bugger it up all the time and some of us even end up giving Christ a bad name.  So, in work, as in life, it's my hope that in some small way I give Him a good name by living a life of integrity walking the walk that goes with the talk... so leaving the staff well was about more than not burning my bridges, it was also about doing 'what Jesus would do' (and no, I don't wear the bracelets or have a WWJD tattoo, no, really...).  Realistically, there are a bunch of people on staff in every church in the world who probably give Christ a bad name to each of their colleagues at different times, they're human after all, I've no illusions that our church is any different.

Anyway, here I am, a month later, and the book is closed. I've finished up all the little jobs I'd left to deal with when I came home from NZ and while I still have the work-supplied Mac, I'm happy that it will be handed back in the next few weeks when I take delivery of one of the older machines that's just about to go off its lease.  Now here I am content to be a regular tutor for the students (my favourite role last year), voluntary staff photographer and committed attender.  Which, really, is just perfect for a year which will be dominated by study and assignments. 

I think the conclusion that I've come to is that I'm called to follow Christ and while I've heard all manner of preaching over the years concerning ones call to one church, one leader, I'm not so 'sheepish' as to buy it all hook line and sinker.  I'll go where I believe I'm meant to be, and for now, whether or not it remains true in the future, I'll stay where I am, believing that for a time I was paid staff which benefitted both me and my church but for 2009 I'm moving forward into whatever new thing God and/or Life has in store.

I couldn't be more excited.

The internet is, as we all know, a marvelous thing.  As we also may well be aware, a fairly large corner of the internet these days is taken up by facebook on which, I probably make more of my presence felt than I do on my very own blog. (For shame).

In any case, facebook reintroduced me to an old Kiwi friend from my cubicle days who now lives with her new husband, in Az, USA and recently she messaged me querying whether I was up for meeting her brotherinlaw and if so would I play host to some degree! As it happend, within minutes of agreeing I had a query from Hoff (the b-i-l in question) and within a week he was here in Oz and we were making plans to meet!!

This is the programme we worked out.  It was an awesome time!  If you want me to do the same for you let me know!!! I'm always up for showing off or recommending sights in this amazing city!!!

Day One.

We met at lunchtime at Circular Quay where I was fresh off the boat, and on Saturday the initial plan was to take a ferry out to Watsons Bay for fish and chips at Doyles but the weather was a bit grey and not nearly gorgeous enough to show off the harbour in her best light so we opted instead for laksa at Malay Chinese. Not a bad choice to introduce someone to laksa for the first time at the best laksa restaurant in Sydney!!

We then walked from there to Darling Harbour, past the Queen Victoria Building and down to the Powerhouse Museum which was housing an exhibition of Star Wars paraphenalia.  It was crowded, due to it being the weekend AND school holidays and perhaps we could have had a bit more of an interesting look around the Australia Museum, but it was a reasonable way to pass an afternoon nonetheless... Once we were done we took a restorative coffee on the way back towards the Rocks where we were planning on having dinner, and watched the world and its dog go past.  Had a game of spot the tourist adding points for guessing WHERE they were from...

Newly fortified we went up to the Rocks for dinner at Caminettos , chosen because the food is pretty good and reasonably priced.  It was also a lovely precursor to what was going to be an evening of Italian Opera at the Sydney Opera House where we attended the double billed opera Cav and Pag ("Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci"). Which, given that Hoff was and Opera virgin was actually a pretty good choice for a first time.  I loved it!  We had seats in the circle where the surtitles were at eye height so there was no neck craning to check the translations and try to see what was going on and the music was fabulous, even for me, whose bent runs more to light opera than the real thing...  I felt pretty blessed to have been invited and I think Hoff was happy to have the company of someone whose musical tastes are flexible and who gets so engrossed that they don't notice when their escort has nodded off in places...  Then of course I was back on the ferry and up to the Beaches for home.

Day Two.

We met up at much the same time on Sunday only to find the Watsons Bay ferry was jammed full, so we started with a coffee at Rossini's on Circular Quay to kill time before the next one. At  $4 for a teacup sized coffee it was was overpriced, no doubt due to its prime location and maybe I'd not have begrudged such a price if the coffee was good... but sadly no... I hope their food is better!!!  Haven't tried... anyone? 

We bolted the coffee down when it was clear that Sydney Ferries had added an extra service to Watsons to accommodate the large crowds clearly in need of Fish and Chips and so we got over there for lunch and a New.  The fish and chips are still great, though under pressure of the large crowds I think the chips were being rushed through a bit... got a bit soggier than I remember... and the portions were smaller than last time, which, however, actually is good, because I never manage to eat it all!!!  Then we walked along the beach to settle the food in and caught the ferry back to Circular Quay.

We were taking advantage of Sydney Transports Daytripper passes which give you unlimited metropolitan travel on the Trains, Ferries and Buses and so we caught the train to Central Station and then a Bus to Bronte Beach.  I have to give kudos to the STA at this point as unlimited travel for a day at $17 is totally worth it, particularly when my fare from Manly and back is $12.60 on its own you very quickly get more than you'd pay for in normal terms. I was also really impressed with their 131500 info line where you can get a real person to tell you where to go... I know... brilliant.

We got to Bronte where we walked the gentle coast walk from there to Bondi (45min from Bronte to the Icebergs), which on a stunning day, such as it was, couldn't have been better.  We finished off at the 'bergs for a beer at this Bondi icon's club room where we met up with 2 other of the Hoff's acquaintances and then, at their recommendation walked along Bondi Beach to North Bondi Italian Food where I was completely spoiled with a gorgeous dinner where we started with Salmon Carpaccio (yes, I actually ate raw fish, and it wasn't smoked.. AND it was yummy) and finished with a perfect Lamb Cacciatore (I think), in which the meat was absolutely divine!  Can't please a Kiwi girl better than with beautifully cooked lamb!!!

The day was amazing, and the company great!  But seriously, get yourself down here, I'd love to do the same with you... 

Er, generally I'm not much of one for New Years' Resolutions because, really, they're a great big fail target waiting to happen.

However, I do have some goals for 2009 and quite frankly, it's a good thing to write them down just so I don't lose sight of them.  If you look closely at them they'll look quite a lot like resolutions I guess... but without the resolve... more the intent and somewhat less of the internal pressure required to make a ridiculous number of wholesale changes all at once with nothing more than good intentions and will power to back them up... Oh, and these are in order of them popping into my head rather than any order of importance.

1. Get more active.  I really only got back into the habit of walking after Rose asked me to join her in November. I'd so forgotten how much more motivated I am after I've got the blood pumping a bit so even once she moved out of town I've been back on the beat.  My daily route is beautiful and takes from an hour to an hour and a half to complete around some of Sydney Harbour so I'd be a fool not to take advantage of it... I started walking in October just 2 days a week, have juiced it up to four and am happy to have stayed in the swing of things since coming home from NZ...
   
2. Make smarter food choices.  No, this is not a diet.  I won't be weighing and measuring (either me or my food), nor will I be counting points or buying pre-made meals... I will be all about eating when I'm hungry and stopping when I'm not; eating what I want but doing what I can to want smarter things.  I think having a bit more home time on my hands makes it possible to look at my recipe books and find interesting recipes and having a much stricter budget means I'll need to make some of the things I'd more often choose to go out for... (First attempt at Asian Salad a la the Wock Bar, great big bucket of win)... My biggest battle on the weight/health front is my relationship with food, why I want the bad things... that's the goal... deal with the appetite... maybe the body will change, in its own time, at its own rate...
3. Plan meals and shop to the plan.  2008 got a bit hectic towards the end and I'd find myself defaulting to a stock cooking repertoire that was quick and easy and quite simply, boring.  There was a time when I used to find prepping dinner relaxing... I want to get back to that... I have good recipes and great produce available locally.  I'm looking forward to making the most of that more often.  I'm also wanting to reduce the amount of food waste I generate... I've thrown away a lot of produce due to planning too far ahead and having the plan change on me leaving food to go to wast... this bothers me and I'd like to redress the balance a bit...
   
4. Spent more time with friends.  Sounds easy... was certainly something I got better at later last year... this might be tricky once University kicks in but the intent is there for 09... and if you're one of these friends, this is a direct invite to include me in your shenanigans!!
5. Achieve a Merit Scholarship at Uni for 2nd semester.  This is my incentive to work really hard on my coursework...  A merit scholarship is worth 300 bucks per paper... so a saving of $1200 (basically the cost of 1 paper) my student loan would be very helpful... To get it I have to achieve a Distinction (+75%) average... wish me luck!!!

I think that's probably enough.  These are lofty maybe, but achievable nonetheless... will see how it goes...  What are your resolutions/plans/goals for 2009?

--- The Fortuitous Return of Lost Things ---

Our story begins, dear reader, with our heroine's need to dispatch a couple of important errands the like of which required the attendance at a branch of the BNZ (that's the Bank of New Zealand for our foreign readers) and the Post Office (which I believe is unlikely to require translation).

It seemed sensible to park the car between the two venues which were separated by a distance of about 500 metres and this done, she proceeded first to the BNZ where the required deposit was made to ensure that her life insurance was up to date and then to the Post Office where a disc of photos was sent to her aunt documenting the family party on New Years Eve. In all, this took probably a total of 20 minutes, once the distance was walked and the queues endured. The errands were duly done and the last on the long list of jobs to be done while on holiday was finally sealed up.

However, it was upon leaving the Post Office that our heroine realised that she no longer appeared to be in possession of the car keys. A dilemma in anyone's books, but particularly disconcerting as the alternate set of keys were some 1127 kilometres (700 miles) away in possession of the car's actual owner on holiday herself in the town of Ashburton.

It is no small thing to have a spare, to be sure... but for it to be so far away was a challenge in that a) the car was parked on a busy main road and would be towed if left too long and b) the car was our heroine's means of transport to the airport at 3.15am on Sunday to be left there to in return to be the means of its owner's transportation home from the airport at 4pm later that day. No question, the car needed to be accessible BEFORE then or all manner of costs would accrue...

Without deferring to an initial position of panic a quick pivot on one's heel was executed to go back to the Post Office to collect the item which was surely left on the counter only minutes before...

Er...

That being so it seemed logical instead to duck back to the bank to collect them then from there...

Er...

And so, back to the Post Office, via the car to make sure they hadn't been left inside... a situation which would not have been ideal but would have been better then than not being able to get to them at all...

Er...

It is at this point that the exclamations started to get a bit more agitated, when a few of them had a panicky edge and which alternated between, "Oh shit, what am I going to do if they don't show up?" and "Oh God, please get me out of this mess!".

Breathing deeply our heroine went once more to the Post Office, scanning every bit of pavement on the way in case it transpired that they had in fact, been dropped from her hand/pocket/purse... still no luck.

The Post Office employees were alternately concerned to see her reappear and helpful in turning the public areas upside down in the hope they would appear... and all areas where she had stepped were duly retraced, the package she had posted was also reopened just in case they'd been posted across town... still no luck.

*good air in... bad air out... good air in... bad air out... oh...shit... oh... God... oh... help...*

Finally, giving up, the poor girl asks the Postal Officer for a pen and paper and writes down her contact details, just in case someone comes in with them... a faint hope... and she starts a text message to her sister, one that started with "Don't Panic"... (another faint hope, as it happens) and just as she did the door opened and a man with a Canadian sounding voice approached the counter asking,

"Have you had anyone come in looking for their keys? I'm embarrassed to admit I picked them up and put them in my pocket absently thinking they were mine!"...

Our relieved heroine turned to the older gentleman and took them from his hand confessing that she was torn between kissing him and crying her eyes out (but did neither) and walked out the door with him thanking him profusely as she did... and uttered a prayer of thanks and a huge sigh of relief returning to the car and hurried home for a stiff drink and a breather.

I am in New Zealand.

The weather is lovely.

My family are all well. I have been better... summer colds are very unfortunate things... but I will survive!!  I had a terriffic time with Kiwi Fi for a couple of days in sunny Northland... where I do believe I felt like I was on holiday for the first time!!!  (Thanks again!! Loved it!)

I have finished at work and will be handing back the laptop next week.  I have many thoughts but limited time to blog them.  I will... but maybe when I get home.

I have been catching up with your news via blogs, facebook and twitter ... but I have been lurking due to time constraints and the insensitivity of RSS to commenting... I hope you don't mind...

As time is short and I'm off to have tea with my mother may I wish you a very Happy New Year??  I'll see you soon...

(ooh, and I've just finished reading 'The Forgotten Garden' by Kate Morton... Loved it... it was great...