Adelaide and back again
Went to Adelaide on Friday night, for my sister’s 18th the next day. It’s always nice to go home, although in no real sense is it my home; I haven’t lived there for almost exactly 20 years (scary; I just realised that), and I certainly haven’t lived in there current house. However, the fam is there, and more importantly the bed I’ve had since I came out of a cot is there, and very nice to sleep in it was too.
The party was fun: good way to see all the rellies (except the aunt who is in WA) at one time. It was, however, a bit freaky then to go out that night to a bar… with my sister (and her friends). I’m not sure whether I feel old or just bemused at the thought that my little squister is old enough to go out to pubs legally. I think it’s jsut weird. It got even weirder when the bro joined us… all three kids out drinking alcohol together?? Bizarre.
Hanging Rock
I went to Hanging Rock today with about 80 Year 7 students and 6 other teachers. It was An Experience. I climbed the stoopid hill twice, and am therefore aware of how unfit I have become; however, I did actually make it.
On the buses, there were these girls singing along to some daft-sounding songs that I didn’t recognise; as you do, when you are 12 or 13. Then the radio magically played 4 Non-Blondes, “What’s Going On,” and I think they all thought I was very odd, as I sang along to this song they didn’t recognise… as you do when you remember when that song first came out and loved it from the beginning.
Ah, generations.
Thoughts
I had this incredible, interesting, thought-provoking thought this morning.
Now I have forgotten it.
Great Sermon Illustrations I have known
This is going to be a constantly-updated entry, as I come across humorous sermon illustrations. Most of these, I would bet, will be from Rob Miller (UniChurch minister) or Richard Condie (SJ’s vicar). It was inspired by last night’s, which was…
God // Renovation Rescue: he moves in and remakes what he find (Rob).
Stay tuned for more insights.
New computer
Well, not quite, but I now have XP which means that for the first time in our new house I am on the internet on my own computer! Yippee! No more arguing about whether kicking James off his for 5 minutes so I can check my email… it’s very nice. It’s also nice to have my bookmarks back, so I can go trawling through my ridiculous range of lit and history e-journals and see whether any of them have managed to put up anything new and/or interesting recently.
We have moved, since the last entry
That was… entertaining… We moved the remaining fish to the qt, drained the main tank and spent a fair while cleaning the gravel, siphoning as much poo out as we could, cleaning the glass, etc. Generally trying to make it look good. Then, because we settled a week before we actually moved, we shifted the main tank before there was much in the house – didn’t want to ask the removalists to do that bit, and thankfully had friend Mark to help out. So it got moved. After a few days, with everything else in the house, we decided on a final position (not quite centre stage in the living room), put the gravel in and filled it up with water.
We had to move the qt as well, of course. Put some water from the tank in a bucket and then had fun catching all the fish to put them in there. The angel in particular didn’t really like that bit. Then we moved it, filled it up with water immediately and moved the fish in.
Unfortunately, the catfish and the angel did not survive the trip. The angel didn’t surprise me, although the catfish did; I was pretty sad, as you can imagine.
We moved the male mollies as soon as the main tank was up to temperature; finally we have managed to separate Miss Molly from the males! Hallelujah! They weren’t looking very happy in there… checked the ph: it was reading low 7, so chucked some pH Down in there, which seems to have settled it pretty well. Ammonia read 0 very quickly, which I guess means the filter moved very well. The tank was looking very bare… so I went to Coburg on my way home from work and bought some plants, and some liquid fertiliser. The most exciting, although smallest, plant is a little Amazon Sword; hopefully it will grow well. I also bought Lizard Tongue, which has big broad leaves, and Dragon Flame, which has leaves that are purple and green and long and thin. I’ve actually since found out that at least the Lizard Tongue is not a true aquatic, so it will be interesting to see exactly how long that lasts. I get a bit annoyed with fish places selling things like and not telling you.
A few days after I bought the plants, I noticed the tank was again doing the algae thing… so I gave in and bought two little bristlenose catfish, which are again terribly cute. Hope they do all right.
How remiss
It has been a very long time since I have written anything about the books I’ve read. Recently I haven’t been reading much, because of work, but before that I read as much as always… My only excuse can be that I am slack. And sometimes I forgot that I had anywhere to report those insights/insults I had whilst perusing some tome. However, I have remembered, and now will make an effort to compile these thoughts for some other person’s edification, although exactly who I think will be reading this I am not sure.
Talking to strangers
It’s a cliche to say that you shouldn’t talk to strangers.
People do talk to strangers all the time, of course – you can’t help it if you want service and so on. Of course, there are also times when you don’t have to talk to strangers but you do. I went to give blood a few months ago and, having drunk copious amount of water so that I would bleed quickly and beat my brother, I needed to find a toilet. I didn’t want to take my bag with me, though, so I turned to the woman next to me. I didn’t know her; I’d only heard her speak once or twice, to her friend. However, I said something like – ‘excuse me, could you mind my bag, make sure no one runs off with it?’ And she smiled, and said yes, so I left and then came back a few minutes later and it was all ok. I thought about it later, though, and I wondered – who was to say she wouldn’t run off with my bag? I had no idea whether she was a kleptomaniac or not. Did my having sat next to her for maybe 10 minutes somehow alter her status as a stranger? And was my bag any safer with her supposedly keeping a watch? Was she exuding some sort of alert to would-be bag-nickers that she would beat them over the head if they attempted to steal the bag of a person she didn’t know?
It was very strange.
Randomly Yours, Alex 