Xmas holidays 2010 - 2011

I haven't updated this blog for a while as I hae been on holidays. To recap:

Thursday 23/12/2010 - flew to Sydney with Qantas. My brother Bill met me at the Airport in a Ford Fairlane Ghia. It took a while to get my bags out as there was a problem with the Carousel. Bill told me that he has left Australia Post and now drives a limo for a living.

Friday 24/12/2010 - I went to Sydney via the ferry which I picked up on Neutral Bay wharf. It was a quick and nice trip to the city. I spent a number of hours shopping even though I felt a bit crook for a while after eating breakfast at McDonalds at Circular Quay. I had a massage at Paddy's Market.

Saturday 25/12/2010 - Christmas day. We meet the family at Cronulla beach. We had lunch at a park, which was really nice. We went to the park because Georgia was on duty with the Wanda beach surf life saving club. After lunch, we went back to the Sargeant's house where we gave out the presents. I managed to drop 3 bottles of wine and break them! That was no great drama because they had plenty of bottles of wine handy. Overall, xmas was a fun day generally.

Sunday 26/12/2010 - Boxing day. As usual, this was a quite day. A day for relaxing after xmas.
I watched the start of the Boxing day test (which was a disaster for Australia). I also watched the
start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Later, for something to do, I walked into Sydney via the harbour bridge. At first I felt disoriented as I did not realise how high up I was. I walked to the Rocks and around Circular Quay. I then walked back to Neutral Bay along the Harbour bridge. In the evening, Mum came to stay.

Monday 27/12/2010 - The Canberra Gates family came to visit us. Chris Gates came over as well. We all took a drive to Freshwater beach. I had never been there before. It looked like a good beach. Unfortunately, the day was cold and wet. They invited me to come down to Canberra with them and mum for a few days, which I accepted. We drove down in the evening. Lillian's two older boys are away, so I stayed in one of their rooms.

Tuesday 28/12/2010 - We did not do much at all today. We just watched TV and movies mostly. I tool Charlie for a walk in the afternoon. His parents did not want him to walk alone in the bush. He is a lot of fun.

Wednesday 29/12/2010 - Today John, Mum, myself and the kids went to the war memorial. I have been there before but this time they have added some exciting new interactive displays. The best one was a film recreation of a WW1 dogfight that was a really cool Hollywood style production. Really good, I thought.

Thursday 30/12/2010 - John, myself and Charlie went and saw two museums. First we went to the National Film and Sound Archive which has recording of all of Australia's movies. I saw parts of the original Ned Kelly film plus pieces of many older films and music clips. There was also a collection of films about Australian inventions. We then went to the National Museum. This had lots of human and natural artifacts but the best exhibit was one that dealt with Captain Cook's original voyage to Australia in 1770. You could see original letters from that time. The handwriting was remarkably good.

Friday 31/12/2010 - Mum and I flew back to Sydney aboard a Qantas Dash 8. The flight took about half an hour. John and Lillian and family went down to the South Coast for a few days. Bill had a party at his place for New Years Eve. The party was not much but we had a great view of the fireworks. They were great. Mum, Frances and I stayed with Bill overnight.

1/1/2010 - New Years day. I did not do much. Just relaxed and went for a walk around the city foreshore. I saw Kirribilly house, Admiralty House and Luna park. It was a hot day but a good walk.

2/1/2010 - I walked into the city and got myself a back massage. Bill and I went to the Mosman pub in the evening for a meal.

Last working day for the year

Today we finished up for the year at BUCO. It was nice to be finished up. We resume on the 4th of January 2011. It was a very busy day as a lot of people turned up looking for help.

In the evening the Shiraz group met at the La Piazza restaurant for an end of year dinner. Only seven were there including a chap from Fiji and a friend of Rod Geri. It was a fun night as usual.

Lunch at the Rising Sun

Today, a few of us met at the Rising Sun hotel for lunch. The purpose was to farewell Suzanne and Shari who have finished their placement with us. It was a really nice lunch and all had a good time.

A new mobile phone

I felt very tired this morning when I woke up and decided not to go to the gym today. Instead I decided to make it a shopping day. I bought my first Mobile Phone today - a Nokia model from Optus. It cost me $79.00, but it feels good to have a new mobile phone at last. I spent most of the afternoon practising with it and mostly just adding in phone numbers.

The weather has turned warm at last.

A very active saturday

Today was a full on day. I went to the gym where the instructor took me through my new routine.
It was similar to the old routine with a few new stomach exercises thrown in. I feel I will go well with it.

Later I went to the house of Jenny Sawyer for an end of year function. I had to take a taxi there which was interesting as I did not know where the street was. Fortunately the taxi driver did know so we arrived OK. The function was quite good and it was nice to visit her house.

I was very tired in the evening. I bought some dinner at the newly reopened Hammer St Cafe. It is good that it has finally reopened.

Lunch with the girls

Today I joined Suzanne and Shari from work, for lunch at the Gallery Cafe in view st. It was a nice lunch. I don't usually go to lunch like that but they invited me so I went. And had a great time as well. The meal was $15.00 and worth it. The company was nice and so was the restaurant.

1st day of December 2010

Another Wednesday off. I went back to the gym for the first time in a week. It felt good. In the evening we had a "Thank you" night at the church. We had a dinner, followed by a talk from Ps Simon Williams about what will happen in 2010. We also welcomed home Russell and Robin Harbour from Vanuatu.

BUCO xmas party

This evening, BUCO held our annual xmas party. This was a dinner at the Bendigo club, which was a really cool night. I had a great time, as did everybody else.

Melbourne Motorcycle Show 2010

I had a very interesting day today. I attended the Melbourne Motorcycle show at the Exhibition building in Melbourne. I was a great show, lots of bikes of all makes were on display. I got to check out close up some of the bikes I have been reading about for a while. The Kawasaki KLR 650 really took my eye. I also saw lots of really cool accessories, like an inflatable air bag jacket.

In the evening I finally got around to watching the Shawshank Redemption DVD. It was a great movie.

A new pair of shoes

After going to the gym this morning, I decided that I needed a new pair of gym shoes. So, after checking out Anaconda (the outdoors and camping store), I bought a new pair of shoes at Payless.

I also got hold of a copy of Media Studio Pro very cheaply.

In the evening I watched a DVD called "Taken", starring Liam Neeson. It was not bad, but a bit violent.

Bendigo Cup Day 2010

I had forgotten that today was Bendigo cup day. If I did not have a Doctors appointment, I would have gone to Melbourne for the day. As it was, it was good news. My blood pressure has dropped and the doctor waxed out my ears, so I can hear properly again, which feels just great. I went to the gym later on.

The Shiraz group meets again

I am battling to get over a cold at the moment. I think I am almost there. The Shiraz group met again this evening. We met at the Furness house again, this time in the bungalow as it was empty. Roly Hill was there. He and his family are about to move interstate so we prayed for him. Also Kent Morrow turned up as did Fraser Pearce, who made a surprise visit.

The weather has turned very wet again.

Start of the cleaning job

After work at BUCO today i began the cleaning tasks. It took about two and a half hours. I was tired later but I felt good inside. It really feels as though I am back at work.

At lunchtime I went to the Department of Human Services and got an application form for housing.

A new part-time job

Today i scored a part-time job as the cleaner at BUCO. It is only about 3 hours per week but I am glad to have it as it will put a few dollars back into my pocket. We were also supposed to have a meeting about the web site but because the office personnel did not have any content ready for me, we could not go ahead with that meeting.

Grand final day 2010 (again)

Today was the replay of last week's grand final. This time it was a one-sided affair with Collingwood winning easily. I went to the gym in the morning and got back in time to watch the game, which was fairly boring. The best team win though.

1st Grand Final day 2010

Today was grand final day 2010. I went to the gym early and got back in time to watch the game. Collingwood had the upper hand early but St Kilda came back to draw the game. There will be a replay next saturday.

A new gym program

When I went to the gym today, there was a new program ready for me. It is similar to my old program but contains more repetitions and makes the cardio work somewhat harder. I was tired after the end of the session, but I feel it will do me good.

Back in Bendigo

This is my first update for quite a while. Just recently some very eventful things have happened.

Lets back up a bit. Saturday September 11th. I flew to Sydney for my brother Bill's 50th birthday party. It was held at his unit in Neutral bay. It was a great night. Nearly all the family were there, plus some of Bills friends from work and Softball. The party was great fun. We even ended up watching Rugby Union, AFL and Rugby league while the party was going on. All in all, a great night.

The next day, Sunday September 12th was also interesting. We went to St Scholastica's chapel in Glebe for a presentation on the work of John Radecki, my great grandfather. He was Australia's first notable artist in stained glass windows. A number of his works were on display in the chapel and they are just awesome! The man had some serious talent! I had heard of him but had not seen his works until then. I was super impressed. The speeches were boring, but I enjoyed the day. To make the day more interesting, there was a nun present who actually taught my mother. Mum is 83 so that nun must be. well 'ancient'!

The next day I flew back to Melbourne with Virgin Blue. The flight was pretty good. When we got into Victoria, I saw some incredible cloud formations. They were like tufts of wool all piled up. I had not seen clouds like this before. They were an awesome sight.

This morning, I attended a free hearing demonstration at National Hearing Care in Kangaroo Flat. Unfortunately, it appears that I may have some hearing damage. I have made an appointment to see a hearing specialist in a fortnight. Not great news, but it is good to know that I have a problem so we can fix it up (hopefully).

Fitness assessment and 3d tv

Today I went to Myer where I watched 3dTV for the first time. It was just awesome. I only watched it for a couple of minutes but the experience was great.

Later I went to the YMCA gym where I got a fitness assessment done. The news was positive. My blood pressure was down a lot and I have lost a few kilos. The instructor said that I have lost some fat but most likely gained some muscle, which weighs twice as much as fat. So I came away feeling very happy.

Updating the web site

I did not go to church this morning. Simon was unavailable, and as the weather is still cold and wet I decided not to walk up to church. Instead, I stayed home and made some significant updates to the Connect Church website. The front page now has a conveyor belt slide show that allows us to display a lot of information without cramping up the page too much. I think it looks good.

There are floods all over Victoria tonight. Fortunately, Bendigo is not too badly affected.

Going to Sydney

I booked my flight today to go to Sydney next weekend for Bill's 50th birthday. It means that I have had to rearrange a few things and miss out on the Furness party, but so what. Bill was good to me last year so I should return the favour. The family is glad that I am coming up.

Ps Donna Shelton

At church this morning we heard from a visiting pastor from the USA. Ps Donna Shelton is the pastor of a church in St Louis, in the USA. She pastors it along with her husband. It is the church that Joyce Meier used to attend. Ps Donna preached very powerfully from Ps 37: 3-4. She also had a some very prophetic words for the church and it's leaders. She prophesied that our church will not be like the Titanic, but instead will be a very impressive cargo boat. I feel that it will be a remarkable time ahead.

Another wet Wednesday

I was cold and really wet all day. I did not do much all day except go to the gym and then go to the supermarket. We had another meeting of the Shiraz club in the evening, this time at the Furness house again. Kevin wanted us to sample his latest batch of wine, so we did not have to bring a bottle. The meeting did not end until 11.00 pm, as we discussed a lot of past and present issues.

Connect Church 30th Birthday Celebrations

Today, Connect Church Bendigo celebrated it's 30th birthday. Yep, 30 years old today. To celebrate, our former pastors were on hand to preach and help celebrate. In the morning, it was pastor Ian Fenn and Pastor Ian Parker and their wives who were on hand to help celebrate. In the evening Pastor David Doery and his wife was there.

After morning church we had a luncheon in the Hall. It was a great day overall. I attended both services, which is unusual for me.

Dinner at Mt Edgecombe Hotel

This evening the Shiraz club met again. We met for dinner at the Mt Edgecombe Hotel in Quarry Hill. Only six of us were there including a chap named Ken Moffatt, who is a friend of Rod Geri. He is a barber and a member of the Ulysses Motorcycle club. The fellowship was fantastic as usual, but while the food tasted great, I felt that I did not get enough on my plate. I left feeling that I did not have enough to eat. This just seems to be the way it goes with restaurants these days. The food seems more decoration than nourishment.

Feeling very relieved

I received notice recently that the old church website hosting service would expire at the end of the month. This would create a problem as to what to do with the church emails. However after contacting Ps Simon Williams, he told me that he felt would be best if we just maintained the old hosting site so as we don't lose the emails. I was glad to hear this as it means we will not have to risk loosing any email information.

I also ended up completing an important job for Kath at BUCO. Also, Max Blume is up and running with my new database program. It will be interesting to see how he gets it into action next friday.

The weather is still cold and wet. That is cool. I am making good progress with my gym work.

Reflux - again

For the last three days, I have been having another bout of the dreaded reflux. I was unable to eat as my body just turned everything to gas and I just kept vomiting stuff up. I believe that this is caused by High Blood Pressure. I have started taking my blood pressure pills and I feel much better now. Hopefully, that is the last of it.

A new storage and back up system

This morning the technician explained to me about our new back up system at work. We can now finally back up all our files properly. The weather is still very cold.

A new printer

I can now access the photocopier at work from my PC. The technician installed a new internet port that allows up to use the colour photocopier. That means we can get rid of all the smaller printers.

I have also finished the Kangaroo Flat database.

World Cup Finale

I got up early this morning to watch the World Cup final. It was not a great game. Spain won 1-0. I was glad they won because the dutch were very negative. I was late for work because I was so tired that I had to go back to bed. That was ok as I did not have much work to do anyway.

In the afternoon I saw Dr Lee again. He told me that my blood tests showed that my sugar was a bit high. My cholesterol was good and my kidneys were in good shape. It was a good report generally.

Motorcycle simulator

Today I had a try out on the Motorcycle simulator at Elliott Bros. It was a good experience. I felt tired at work today. Probably a hang over from my first gym session.

First gym session in years

I did not have much to do at work today. I had gotten up early to watch the world cup semi-final between Germany and Spain. Spain won 1-0, which I was happy about.

In the afternoon, i went to the YMCA and had my first gym session in many years. The instructor was a girl named Briley Tonkin. She was very good. She has started me off with a basic program that we can build up as we go along. I am sure the gym work will do me good. It took a couple of weeks to get a medical clearance, but now I can go ahead and hopefully lose some weight.

Last night we had another Shiraz club night. We met at Rod Geri's place again. They now have the Pizza oven working, so we had pizza as well as wine. We also went into the Spa. Dale prentice turned up, which was cool.

First of July 2010

The first day of July in 2010 has proven an eventful day. I got the go ahead to start the BUCO website. I had a meeting with Kath and Sue in the Cottage and it is all systems go for the new website. Kath wants to gradually build it into a site where we can sell stuff online. I have a template already chosen. I will get working on it ASAP.

The weather has turned really cold and wet in the last few weeks. This is good as the reservoir levels are finally rising!

Saturday at the footy - and meeting up with some old faces

I got a phone call this morning from John Leahy, an old friend who now lives in the USA and has come back to Bendigo for a visit. He invited me to meet with him and Gary Marchioni, another old friend and go to a football match at Strathfieldsaye. We went there in the afternoon and watched the game between Eaglehawk and Strathfieldsaye. The game wasn't so great, Eaglehawk won fairly easily. It is only the second local match I have ever watched.

I also ran into a few old faces from my past. Ray and Wendy Pilcher were there as was Graham Milner, from Mildura who I have not seen for a while. It was interesting to catch up with some old faces.

My first world cup blog

This is my first blog for quite a while. I really haven't done very much since I completed the Connect Church Website. Except for watching the world cup. I have had a few early mornings and I am occasionally getting very tired. I will be glad when it is over.

But today I joined a Gym for the first time in several years. I signed up at the YMCA gym in Eaglehawk. I decided to go there because there is no big upfront fee. I can pay fortnightly fairly easily. I really do need to lose weight. I hope to be much trimmer by Xmas.

The Shiraz club met again, this time at Kevin Furness house. We watched a video "Luther". It was really good. It was a great night even though there were only 4 of us there. Kevin and Jenny are going to Darwin tomorrow for a week's holiday.

Connect Church Website finally up and running

Today, I finally got the Connect Church website up and running. Everything is working fine, although the domain name is still not fully propagated. That should happen next week. It is a good feeling. I watched Eurovision in the evening.

New phones at BUCO

Today we finally got the new phone network installed at BUCO. We have also got a much faster internet along with it, which is cool.

Website nearly ready

I met with Pastor Simon Williams today at Connect Church. He helped me set up the web site account for the church with a hosting service called eWebCircle. The site should be up and running in a few days. This is good news.

A quiet Wednesday

I got almost no sleep on tuesday night. I slept in late and did very little all day long. We had another Shiraz club meeting in the evening at Rod Geri's place. We watched the latest Star Trek video. I had seen it twice before. They have almost installed a new Pizza oven outside.

A new heater

I went for a walk in the afternoon and passed by a house which was having a garage sale. I managed to pick up an oil heater for only $10.00. It was a good bargain.

Friday the 14th

I went for a walk down town at lunch time and ran into Tony Curnow. I had not seen him for a while and we had a long chat. He is still living on the farm at Wedderburn but not doing sheep any more as there is no money in it. He is sub letting the place to someone who is growing garlic. It was good to catch up with him and have a chat about things.

I had to leave work after lunch as I was feeling crook with indigestion. I think those saveloy s I ate the night before did not agree with me. I felt OK after a short rest.

A busy Wednesday

First up, I visited Connect Church where I met with Pastor Simon Williams and we finalized a few things about the web site, despite having a few computer glitches. He is happy with what I have done and we are nearly ready to go. I have now just got to tee up a hosting service.

Later, I went shopping and bought new underpants and socks.

In the evening I attended a service at the Forest St Uniting Church. This was a combination of church service and an annual reporting evening for BUCO. I got to meet Sue McMinn, who is Kath's new PA. It was a really good night overall.

The merry month of May

This is my first update for a while. There has not been much to report. I got my results back from my test for Bowel Cancer. They were negative. Let's hope it stays that way.

Visiting BUCO in Kangaroo Flat

This morning I paid a visit to the BUCO outreach in Kangaroo Flat and had a chance to see how Max Blume's operation worked. It is smaller but operates in a more open space. I got to see how his IT system works. It was an interesting morning.

"Supersize me.....!!!!"

It's been a while since I updated this blog. The reason for this is that there is not much to blog about. It has been pretty quite and uneventful lately. At Connect Church this morning, we had a visiting pastor get up to preach. He was the same pastor who came 5 months ago and announced that Ps Russell Harper was standing down from his post. Thankfully this time he did not have any particularly dramatic announcements to make. The theme of his message was "Lord, supersize me..". He preached about Joseph in the Old testament. He talked about how the Lord eventually "Supersized" him from being a prisoner to the Prime Minister. He talked about how Joseph never changed his attitude, despite his circumstances. I felt that this was a relevant word for this church as a whole.

It will be rather interesting to see how the Lord outworks this message. In the afternoon I scored myself a new lounge. Some body gave it away. My place is getting cluttered.

Checking out health and fitness

I dedicated most of the day to checking out health and fitness options. I looked into buying some gym equipment as well as going out to the YMCA gym in Eaglehawk to look into taking out a membership. I have got to develop a fitness routine in order to lose weight and lower my blood pressure. I think I will study the Eaglehawk option further.

In the evening we held the third Men's Shiraz nights for the year. We met at the Furness's house. It was a chance to say goodbye to Fraser Peirce, who is going to Adelaide next week.

Easter Saturday

I went to Coffee Connect today. There were a couple of guys there as well as me, which made it a bit different. In the evening, I watched Star Trek Nemesis - the only Star Trek movie that I had not seen so far.

Good Friday 2010

Today is Good Friday 2010. I did not go to church today but stayed home and have made some pretty good progress on the website. It is coming up really well now. I went for a walk in the afternoon and watched the Star Trek DVD in the evening. It was a pretty quiet day generally.

Onwards and upwards

I had another chat with Kath Tointon, our manager. She told me that it is all "onwards and upwards" from here.!! Interesting. Let's see how that works out?

Starting to grow

At morning tea, Max Blume outlined to me how they plan to connect up all the agencies on the internet when they get the new system up and running. It sounds great. Just when it will happen, we do not know. He also invited me to Kangaroo Flat to check out his system over there.

Kath Tointon mentioned to me that an honorarium has been granted to me by the board. It is not a lot of money, but it is useful.

A night of the Prophetic

After work, I went to Connect Church in the evening for a night of the prophetic with Greg Burson, a prophet from New Zealand. He bought some fascinating words for various people in the church. It has been a while since I heard that sort of ministry operating.

Getting close to Easter

At church this morning, Simon Moten told me that he and his wife have split up. He is also selling the Vineyard, which is a pity. He makes a really great wine. At church this morning, Simon Williams preached on "Looking for that which was lost".

A full on friday the 19th

I was late getting into BUCO because the bus did not turn up on time! I worked until 1.00 pm and then made my way to Connect Church where I demonstrated the new web site to various people. They were impressed! That is cool. It was a great day all up except for another annoying bout of indigestion. That was literally a pain. The weather is still quite hot.

A fairly quiet St Patricks day

Today is St Patrick's day. I usually go for a drink or two on this day. I first went to Pugg Mahone's, but it was packed out so I went down to the Brian Boru and there was hardly anybody there at all!
That place has certainly changed. A few years ago it was standing room only on St Patrick's day.
I stayed for a couple of Guinness ales and then left. I later paid all my bills and bought a new pair of jeans from Lowe's. The weather is still hot.

There was no men's night on tonight as nothing has been arranged.

A new laptop computer

At BUCO today, Peter Darlow, Julie Roberts and myself were all given new laptops. These are meant to replace the desktops we have now. I took mine home and played with it to get the hang of windows 7. It is pretty cool.

A productive wednesday

I spent most of the morning working on a new web site. It is http://www.connectchurchbendigo.webs.com/onelife.html. It is a poster site for the upcoming musical we are having at Connect Church over Easter. It involved a bit more work than I thought.

Some more good news is that www.freecoldfusionhosting.com now seems to be working at last. The weather has turned cold, which is ok. I prefer that to the 40 degree heat.

Lets back up a bit

I have not updated this blog for over a week so I will now recap.

Wednesday the 3rd March. Kept working on the Connect Church Website and made good progress. In the evening I went to Rod Geri's house for the men's Shiraz club meeting. Rod proudly showed off his new motorcycle. It is a rather flashy (and expensive looking) Harley Davidson which he just bought down from Sydney. Unfortunately it has stopped working on him so he will have to transport it to Shepparton to get it fixed, as there is no Harley-Davidson dealer in Bendigo. We also tried out his new outdoor spa, which was pretty cool. It was fun sitting in a spa and drinking red wine. Russell Treloar was there as well as Fraser Peirce, who told us he was going to move to Adelaide.

Friday the 5th of March. I had to leave BUCO after lunch as I was not feeling well. That rotten nausea has made a comeback. I must be eating the wrong thing! I felt really crook for the rest of the day and all night. I could not sleep all night and I was regularly vomiting.

Saturday the 6th of March. I decided to go to Casualty at the Bendigo Hospital. They took about 5 hours to see me. The doctor told me I had high blood pressure, which I know about, but he could not pinpoint a cause for my nausea. He gave me some tablets to help the condition.

Sunday the 7th of March. I felt better after a good nights sleep. At Connect Church we had a visiting pastor turn up who happens to be chaplain for the Victorian Motor racing association. He is an ex-cop who told some pretty cool stories. He also turned up in a 4 wheel drive dragging behind the longest trailer you ever saw. Apparently his trailer is used as a medical center as well as for accommodation.

Monday is the 8th of March. Today is the Labour day public holiday. It has been raining solidly for 3 days now. That is good because we need the rain. I kept working on the Connect Church website and also set up a new site for the upcoming Easter musical production.

Stressed out first day of autumn

Today is the first day of autumn. Normally that is good news for me, as Autumn is my favourite time of the year, weather wise. However the day proved a bit stressful. I could not get my
computer to work as I had adjusted the screen resolution too far and the monitor would not take it. The monitor just blacked out. I took it into BUCO and tried it on the wider screen but to no avail. I had to take it too the Eaglehawk PC shop (from where I bought it) and the technician fixed the problem by installing a new video driver. I cost me $40.00 and put me a day further behind at BUCO but it did bring peace of mind as I have some valuable stuff on that computer, particularly the new website I am doing for Connect Church.

Later in the day I felt quite sick. That rotten indigestion that I had last christmas has started to return. Bummer.

A day to work on the website

I did not go into BUCO today. Instead I stayed home and continued work on the Connect Church website. I got a lot done. I have sorted out the issues with the Event Calendar, so I feel that I have made good progress.

Sunday the 21st of February

After church this morning, I was invited (along with others) to a barbecue at Col Pilcher's house in Junortoun. I had not been there for more than 20 years. I actually used to live next door. It bought back a few memories. We had a really nice lunch and played billiards after wards. I did not get to go for a swim in the pool. But it was a lovely afternoon.

Farewell to Jonina

At BUCO today we had a farewell lunch for Jonina Fraser, who is returning to New Zealand to live.
It was sad to see her go. I felt really tired after work. I hope I am not getting sick.

Last Wednesday night, we had the first men's group for the year. It was at Kevin's place. Only five of us were there but it was a great night as usual. Kevin gave me a few bottles of wine for helping out the previous sunday. He seems to have recovered fairly well.

Friday the 12th

I left BUCO at 2.00 pm as I had finished work early. I went to Connect Church and showed them what I had done so far with the website. They seemed impressed. I also discussed a new database but decided the existing program was ok.

The weather has cooled off.

An important meeting

This morning I was summoned to a meeting in the Cottage with Kath. She wished to let us know that soon new laptops would arrive. That is good news. The old computers will go into the interview room. I may be asked to train interviewers how to use the computers to enter data. That will be interesting.

Lunchtime meeting

At BUCO today we held a lunchtime meeting in the church hall. Among other things discussed was the fact that we are getting new laptop computers. The interviewers will have the option of using them. Also there will be more case managers on the site.

Finished.....for now

I stayed home for most of the day and worked on the website. I am finished for now. All I need is a place to host it. Unfortunately, FreeColdfusionHosting is playing up and will not let me in.

At the library, I borrowed a book on "Second Life".

Australia Day 2010

Today is Australia day. I really don't care - it just means a day off. I used the day to keep working on the Connect Church website. I have just about gone as far as I can go for now.

56 years old today

I am 56 years old today! How does that make me feel. Not good, not bad. But look on the bright side - one day closer to eternity - which must be a good thing. I got a phone call from mum who is in Canberra as well as emails from John and Pauline. I did not end up going to church this morning as I slept in. It was a quite day generally bit I had my own private celebration in the evening.

Happy birthday to me - and a few others

At BUCO today, there were a few people having birthdays about this time. Myself, Brett and Sue. There was birthday cake, chocolates and other sweets laid out in the lunch room and they sang happy birthday to us, which was nice.

When I got home, I found a slightly unexpected but useful birthday 'present'. Some tradesmen had arrived and replaced my aging hot water system, which was overflowing. I now have a nice new one. That is nice.

Wednesday the 20th

Today marks the first anniversary since President Obama took office. Cool!! As for myself, the highlight of my day was meeting Ps Simon Williams at Connect Church at 10.00 am and telling him about my progress with the website. He seemed impressed that I have got as far with it as I have.

He offered all the support that he could.

Getting back to the "basics"

At church today Ps Simon Williams preached on "Getting back to Basics". After church, Simon asked me to contact him next tuesday morning to talk about the internship. Peter Fox and his wife Mundy attended church this morning as well.

Back to work - on the website

I decided not to go to BUCO today as I wanted to get a handle on the website. I have made pretty good progress and I should have a draft to demonstrate soon. I got an email from mum telling me that she and Bill have decided NOT to come to Bendigo at this time as it is too expensive. Some other time then.

Connect Church Website

I stayed home for most of the day and recommenced work on the Connect Church website. After some frustration, I made some good progress. The weather is getting very hot. It will be a really hot weekend.

Back in Bendigo

Here I am, now back in Bendigo. To recap, here is what has happened since my last blog.

Sunday the 3rd January. I slept in late as I had little sleep from the night before. The night was hot and muggy. Today was a bit of a do nothing day, except watch the cricket. The aussies were terrible. Even Ponting went for a golden duck.

Monday the 4th. My older sister Pauline came back from Cairns where she had stayed for christmas with her daughter Kirsten. It was nice to see her again. In the evening we went to the Pat Rafter Tennis Center, which is virtually just around the corner from Mum's place, to see the Brisbane International. We saw 2 games. In the first Radek Stepanek from the Czech Republic beat John Millman from Australia. In the next game, Andy Roddick from the USA beat Peter Luczak from Australia. It was my first time watching international tennis. It was a good experience except for a few idiots in the crowd who seemed to think that people only come to tennis to listen to them!!

Tuesday the 5th. I flew back to Melbourne with Virgin Blue. The flight took just over two hours and was pretty smooth except for some turbulence coming into Melbourne. I got back home by 7.00 pm. It was good to be back even though I could not have a hot shower as I had turned off the hot water before I left and I had to clean up the fridge as a bit of mould had gotten in. I was tired by the end of the evening.

Update from Brisbane

Here I am in sunny (and rather muggy) Brisbane. Mum and myself flew here yesterday from Perth. The flight with Qantas took about 4 hours. It was quicker flying East because we have the wind at our back. We left Perth at 12.45 pm and were in Brisbane 4 hours later.

To recap since my last blog entry, here is what has happened since:

* Wednesday 3oth december. Mum, myself and Bill went on a river cruise to down the Swan river to Fremantle. It was a great cruise. We saw "millionaires row" and "new millionaires row" plus the Royal Perth Yacht club. It was a really good cruise. I did not realise how big or wide the river is. After the cruise we went to Burswood Hotel/Casino complex for lunch. The lunch was great and the hotel complex was very swanky: real 5 star stuff. We saw the Casino later. it was very big and packed with "punters" - probably all losing their money.

*Thursday the 31st - New Years eve. This was a do nothing day! The most exciting thing that I did was go for a walk along the beach. It was a good day to do nothing after such a busy week. We had a small New Year's eve celebration - just the three of us. We played the latest version of Trivial Pursuit - it uses a DVD to ask the key questions. It was cool.

*Friday the 1st January 2010 - flew to Brisbane.

As for today I am walking around Brisbane and just checking the place out.