And so it passes

People seem to have spent the last year saying "Where has this year gone?", and here we are on New Years' Eve.

On this day last year I blogged about the price of petrol complaining that it had gone up from $1.18 to $1.33...I note that this year it appears to have been an even greater leap to $1.39. Being blamed on the Northern cold snap. I remain unconvinced now, as I did then, "that local petrol stations can act so responsively to international fluctuations"

In January 2010 the unsexy country of Haiti had an awful earthquake, there was awful flooding in Pakistan and of course there was the usual drivel from the meanest amongst us in this 'lucky country' that we should give to our own. I asked then, as I ask now "n the end that human/religious principle... do to others what you want to have done to you....

might cause us to ask what we would like others to do for us if we were subject to earthquake, flood or fire."

Today, indeed, to the north some of us this day will have the awful catastrophe of flood, while in SA it is a 'catastrophic' fire day.

I suspect that the meanies will find an excuse to not give to those either

During February I managed to blog from Adelaide Airport, Singapore Airport, Bangkok, the Phi Phi Islands, Phuket and then again in Singapore. Good trip.

In March we had a State Election...the first of a number of elections, making us a bit testy and bored with the process. I wondered if God had an opinion on who should win (other than, of course, simply agreeing with me).

ANZAC Day 2010 came in a year when there seemed to have been death after death of our servicemen ( and indeed of countless others) in theatres of war. I noted that the ''great" thing about the Great War was that a number of young poets, many like Wilfred Owen killed in action, challenged the glorification of war naming it rather as what old men require of young men. A shocking thing for the Empire.

One of a number of theatre/music highlights of the year was the visit of Ute Lemper, it is always amazing to see performers who are world class. W& J who were also there didn't think it was very good. Sarah and I thought she was amazing. Also Patricia Piccinini's "Big Mother" in the Art Gallery of SA is an amazing sculpture which was well worth the visit.

There was a running debate in all sorts of fora (not over by any means) about the place and relationship of science, art and religion.I don't for the life of me see why these things are mutually exclusive.

There were of course lots of religious stories. Some show that the church can be just ridiculous (see here). And some like the saga of the Murray Diocese which show it is just really, really sad (here ) Our own Bishop works a little too hard and struggles with us as people. I hope he has a productive time away from the Diocese for a few months.

And...we survived. Yes after a rather bloody transition, Australia woke up to find it had not only a woman Prime Minister. But also a 'ranga'

And of course, amongst other things in August, I couldn't resist the temptation to blog about the irrationality of petrol prices again.

I began to feel in the latter part of the year that blogging was getting to be a bit of hard work. So I do apologise to those of you who come back and keep on reading. I am taken aback that you are all over the world, and in all sorts of places and positions.

The cold winter almost killed me this year . Which might explain why I started to endlessly glog about flowers and tomatoes (here and here and here). I think I had lost a little too much weight. Some days I just couldn't get warm. This is not the case since Christmas when I have put on a 'couple' of kilos.

My mother would have been 90 in November. I was going to go and visit her grave but in the end I didn't get there. But we all remember her fondly, as indeed we do our father.

And so the year has gone. A lot of talk about same-sex marriage, and a different-sex marriage in our family have given us much pause for thought about that august institution. I still consider myself to be 'married' even though my wife and I no longer live together. I still wear my ring, and don't consider I am at liberty to enter into another marriage relationship. Should the time come when this situation has to change then I will have to do something more than just go to the Family Law Court which, after all, cannot dispense with my religious vows.

The refugee issue continues to haunt our island nation. It is profoundly confronting. But like most things there are good news stories too!

Happy New Year to us all!

On being boring

Eldest daughter was a bit put out that she went to Church on Good Friday and I didn't even notice she was there!
Later in the day she told me
"You preached too long!"
"I only preached for 10 minutes"
"It was too long!"
You can't win them all, and your family are a preacher's worst critics!
"Any way, " she countered when she realised she was maybe just being argumentative, "you always say the same thing!"
"So what did I say?" I countered.
"Well you always say how death is so important that we shouldn't run away from it!"
I said no more, content that at least one person had heard what I had intended to say!

Coming to an end

We have had quite an extraordinary time, as we come to the end of our time in Thailand. Only one day to go!.
There is a quietness about it, even here in Patong (Phuket busy, busy) which is surprising. And even when you get too tired of the constant harangue of the street vendors wanting to sell you watches, bags, shirts, and sarongs...you can retreat to the quiet of the hotel and not know you were somewhere in Asia.
Weather has been delightful. Breezy in the morning and the early evening. Last night as we walked along the beach we watched the parasailing, and didn't have any money to try it ourselves, so tonight we will go back and Kate at least will go up. Taking pictures from above while we marvel below.
Tomorrow will be early start (6 a.m.) and late finish. Back to Singapore and then a night flight to Adelaide. It will, as always, be good to be home. But sad to finish what has otherwise been a great holiday time.

Off and running

.... Adelaide Airport All those who complain habitually that Adelaide is a backwater will be interested to note that some aspects of our transport hub do indeed work.
Leaving on an International flight with no one free to take me to the airport I agonised about what to do.
It seemed easy, catch the train and tghen the airport bus. Despite three very kind offers of people who thought this was just too much like hard work that's what I did. Left home at 10.30, met a parishioner on the platform...she was bemused and said (tellingly) that's the sort of thing you expect people to do overseas. I nodded and said that's what inspired me. Why shouldn't we do it at home. Boarded the train and used my interpeak ticket. ($1.53/trip)
Met another friend on the train who used to live in Singapore, and we had a nice chat. I chugged up to Currie Street, bumped into B...I mean some days I catch the train and see no one. Hurtling down Currie I heard "Stephen, Stephen!". Twas my wife. "Can't stop! can't stop" and waved.
Waited 10 minutes to catch the J2 which takes you right to the Upper Concourse. (used the same ticket)
Have checked in. And am here filling in the time...not resisting the temptation to blog. 12.07 p.m. all for a cost of $1.53
k is already on her way ringing at 7 a.m. (our time) as she chugged through Heathrow (never again will I fly out of Heathrow!!!! And why should you?)

important calls

don't you hate those calls that say: "this is quite important"?

then when you ring them back (after agonising for hours) they say...can I ring you back in an hour?

Hate to interrupt your sleep darling, as you interrupted mine!

Shopping spin

I tire of the drivel that passes for genuine comment by those who constantly bemoan that Adelaide shuts down for public holidays. The usual comment is that "Travellers think we are a backwater".

With two daughters having traversed three continents in the last 3 - 6 months, and they have just spent Christmas in London I make the following observations:

You cannot surely call Rome, Turin, Florence, Paris, or London "backwaters". Yet in all of those places there have been times when touristy stuff and/or shops have been closed. Indeed the transport system in London seems to almost shut down for 48 hours over Christmas. My prospective son-in-law traipsed all the way out to Greenwich to find it closed, and Regents Park Zoo closed early on the particular day he wanted to go. In Italy, and often in France, the great museums and galleries are almost always closed on Mondays. The department stores are not open 24 hours a day.

I observe, too, that though the supermarkets were open on Sunday, at Blackwood it was almost dead

I always think when these chamber of retailers whiners (or who ever they are) go on about this it is clear that they are not going to be the ones who are going to have their festive season broken into by having to staff endless unregulated shopping. It will be people like my niece E who works for Myers and who has a young son who delights to have his mother round. She's not complaining, but sometimes we all seem a bit tired from too much opening.!

eating..praying... and... loving

I read the populist book by Elizabeth Gilbert.."Eat Pray Love" recently and preached about it at Christmas (here)

Because Christmas is about God in the ordinary stuff of life we do well to remember that it is the ordinary eating together that is so important. One of the sad things about the breakdown of the relationship between S & I is the loss of the daily opportunity to sit down with other people at least once a day. Turn the TV off and, however briefly, often ungratefully, maybe testily to actually have to try and converse.

Christmas Day we try to do this. I was interested that the three travellers spent their day together feasting in London. (They walked to Buckingham Palace in the afternoon...good thing to do!) and cooking for each other. The fruits of their travels. Belgian Chocolates, little French things. Lvely roasts. They also made our favourite dessert Apple Crumble...and they were having trifle and Glühwein. There is a lot of stuff going on here. Recreating childhood Christmas, but sharing time with the blood relatives (even though they drive each other wild... how will K and I go for two weeks in Asia) Making some of their own traditions. Reminiscences of stuff passed down through the generations. Seems quite important.

family in space

I have endured the joy and agony of one daughter in China and another in Spain (or is it France?) almost too much to work out what the various time differences are.

The real problem is not what the time differential is but what do you do if you have tsunami or earthquake.

In the back of my mind there is always the question of how might I access enough bucks to make a rescue dash.

And yet I also know that it's great that they encounter risk. When the Spanish daughter was little I used to make her climb the granite boulders on the eponymous island off the coast of Victor Harbor. This much to her mother's chagrin! Yesterday I prayed like mad that the God who loves her, and his Mother will be watching carefully over her.

Once, when I was rescuing her from a big mistake of the 16 year old kind, I wrote her a letter saying how awful it was to see the most beautiful thing I had ever known lying helpless on the ground. I trust her strength, God's love, the holy Guardian Angels and the Mother of Jesus (a lot of BIG guns) to look after the most beautiful thing in the world.

New York, new York: So good they named it twice

K, presently in NY,NY; sent me a message the other day telling me to bring her spotted gum boots for her forthcoming trip.
I was a bit surprised that she wanted to pack something quite so heavy. Nevertheless I did what i was told! She actually wore them on the 'plane.
So, it was good to get an SMS on her first day in the Big Apple saying "It was a good idea to pack the gum boots then!"

She's having a great time, seen Avenue Q (absolutely hilarious) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She's loving it!  Gum boots and all. And why not?

The Mondegreen green grass of home

All of us us have experience of the mondegreen or the misheard lyric. [I sang for much of my childhood It's Mobil Castor Oil... heaven knows why anyone would think such a song line would exist...have you guessed it yet?]

I have been listening to my daughters mis-singing the Abba song Lay all your love on me!

Blithely they sing the mondegreen. Don't go wasting your devotion! Now forgive me but don't the lyrics say...Don't go wasting your emotion, Lay all your love on me...then you are allowed to sing ...Don't go sharing your devotion

Both sentiments are challenging!

But it does strike me that my children think that the correct attitude of others towards them should be "devotion". Good luck to them

Show and Tell

I am looking out the window on my day off and wondering about going to the Show

But it's grey now, and I really think I am just avoiding my Master's assignment. So think of me as I try to be virtuous.

K is in Boston today (Yes I managed to find her accommodation from here while she was in NYC). The girls are in Melbourne for Wicked. Which Sue and I saw in London last year. Sophie has to fly home tomorrow, for the first time by herself, because she has Tournament of Minds this weekend, this fabulous competition looms large in her mind, as a challenge for intellect and creative thinking. The actual competition is on Sunday.

The only one

The only one of our family who is not an SC, lost track of time this morning and rang us 5 a.m.

She was (to excuse her) on a bus about 45 minutes away from Washington DC, having just gone through Baltimore (those who have seen Hairspray will know why she rang)

She's doing well, I alsways ask the questions about her safety, but she either lies stretches the truth or is blissfully unaware.

"Washington," she said "is easy to get around; and very safe"

And I think...Doesn't it have the highest murder rate in the US!!!

Growing up

One daughter rang from the US to say "I think I am in New York. We were driving to the Mall" (one of her all time dreams) "and I said to the people 'Is this New York?'"
Not New York City but (maybe) Middletown New York State, not far from Milford Pennsylvania, which is not far from the back of beyond Camp Netimus, where she is working.
Her German sister meanwhile when she heard that K had driven on the Highway with a capital H screamed (by SMS) "And she has driven!"
Yes, driving on the highway ...I mean Highway...is an achievment
She said she had been to Dachau and it was fairly confronting to stand in the gas chamber.
I could only reply (via SMS) that was indeed so! And it was good to stand in a gas chamber!

Such consumers

k rang from the US this morning. She had 'accidentally' driven to the Mall and found herself in upstate NY. So she was ringing to tell us, she had said to someone "is this New York state" and they had looked at her as though she was odd.
More critically, she sighed, "We would fit in so well here!" when I asked why (I had already suggested "Because we are so fat?") she simply said "They are such consumers, and so are we."
What have we done to our children?

All my little chicks

Well number two left yesterday for Singapore and thinks it is Wicked. And number one left today for LA (where the big jet engines roam).
I am amazed at how exhausted I feel just getting them out of the house. Looking forward to a quiet weekend!!

Satire: alive and well

K and I were pleased to go and see keating the musical tonight.
Fantastically well done performance. Reminding one of the power of satire, as well as of certain insights which maybe we have forgotten.
Particularly the one where Keating was defeated by the little chimp...the echo of the song being what chumps Australians are to prefer to'just go back to the way things were before'.
I was also deeply moved by the skittish Mabo song, so full of life and which reminded us of how wonderfully life-giving that was.
It is unremittingly cruel to Howard who seems more like Brezhnev than an Australian PM, and the fact that Hawke and Howard are played by the same person is telling us something about Hawke too.
It is a little but not totally unfair to both of them.
On the side we were standing in front of Bob Ling former CEO of Hill's industries who I knew from a long time ago. He must have been bemusedto see the range of new flags that Keating was allegedly promoting. One of which had a Hill's hoist on it. More importantly I spotted Lowitja from afar, she must have been cheered by the spirit with which the move forward in aboriginal issues was presented.
K struggled (being only 24) to keep upwith the history, and she wryly observed that was why the audience was mainly made up of people my age rather than hers.
I made sure to introduce her to Archdeacon C as my daughter, lest he think I was out with this gorgeous younger woman (which I suppose I was!)

Arty farty

Today, another graduation. In the way that it never rains, but it pours (would that were so) Kate will graduate today. This time with a politics degree from Flinders.
Well done Kate, and hopefully more photos later in the day.

Kate Clark B. A.

There is a sense of completion (yes still one more to go but some years away). This seesm to be one of the points where parents should get their children educationally. They could reasonably be expected to work the rest of it out for themselves!

Facebook link here