Not funny Huey!

You need to understand where Bali is on this map to get the import of this blog. It is under the great orangey-red splodge above Western Australia.

I bring this to your attention because the medium S Clark (now Mrs Nagy) is in Bali at this present time.

This morning as I drove the youngest S Clark to Music Camp it started to rain. We had been told that SA may get some flash flooding but the weather report assured us it was in the north and east. Places with such exotic names as Moomba and Arkaroola. The rain got heavier and heavier.

As we have all watched devastated what is happening in Qld, I am sure I was not the only one who hoped we weren't about to get a deluge. As I drove through the Goodwood Underpass I said to my passenger.."It's awful when this floods as you have no idea how deep it is" How pathetic am I! Probably 50 cms at most and our compatriots are dealing with metres of water. It is beyond comprehension.

Then, mindful of Mr & Mrs D Nagy on holiday in Bali, I am wondering how they are faring.

It is rainy season and we have remarked when there in the past how awful ti would be if the drains banked up. The weather map and the great red spiral, which we are glibly told is La Niña, swoops down through Thailand over Indonesia, Bali and over continental Australia is what would appear to be the cause of all this.

We can only thank God (as K Rudd did this morning) that it has stopped raining in Qld. And hope Bali is OK, and that we are not too badly affected.

The rain here, in Adelaide, appears to have stopped.

Footnote Incidentally even though the term "Huey" is a colloquial tongue in cheek reference to God...and sometimes referred to as the 'Surf God of the Weather' I wonder whether its origin is much more respectable.

Given that the unpronounceable and unpronounced Hebrew word for the LORD is YHWH (remember that Hebrew script has no vowels)..and in the ancient English texts this was rendered incorrectly as 'Jehovah'...you only have to look at YHWH and realise it could be Huey...particularly when WAW (the letter transliterated W here is sometimes..even often pronounced as U) so it doesn't take much to recognise that YHUH could become some wags Huey. Don't even get me started on Yahoo!

North v South

this is just to let you know if you read this blog in the northern hemisphere, as I know some do, that it's really cool here today in Adelaide. Only in the low 20s, and Christmas Day looks like being in the low 30s...so a fraction milder.
Oh and did I forget to mention that it is degrees centigrade not Fahrenheit that I am talking about!!

Wild and wooly

It's almost possible to believe with such wild weather here and in all sorts of other places that something global is happening. Maybe the particle accelerator did bring about some teensy weensy black holes, and all the weather came out of them.

Or maybe the world is indeed warming faster than we think. Today.

But then as I said to someone this morning!

It is typical show weather. Hot one day, wet and wild the next. The vagaries of early Spring.

Things that go bump in the night

It has been a funny old week with many disturbing things. They vary in quality, some seem serious, some seem ho-hum, some are depressing. I can do things about some of them and nothing about others. It all leaves me feeling just a little dazed about what is going on in my life.

• Sunday was my first Sunday back, everything went OK. Sometimes with a longish break your drop the rhythm and its hard work just leading worship. It wasn't so this week. Maybe that's good and maybe that's bad. It rather reminds me of the cartoon of the old woman shaking the priest's hand at the door of the Church, after one of a the new style of services (so typical of the 60s and 70s) had not gone particularly well. "Don't worry Vicar, " she said, "we'll soon be rattling all the new words off without a thought!"
• We also had a little administrative meeting after church and I came away feeling ambushed about discussions that had obviously taken place while I had been away and no one had bothered to tell me about them. The actual content didn't bother me so much, but I was left with a sense of little concern for me and my feelings.
• The weather has been dark and cold, and I was very conscious that last year this took a toll on my mental outlook. I cannot wait for it to end, but there is weeks to go.
• All this Aboriginal stuff is horrible. I feel for those communities that are so vulnerable to government whim and posturing in order to gain electoral advantage
• I was deeply disturbed after Spiritual Direction this week. I came away with a feeling that I had made no connection at all with my Director. And I wanted to go back and say "This can't go on!" and yet the thought of having to find someone else is too much to bear. The irony is that (as those who know about Direction will testify) that such a strong response inevitable means some powerful sort of movement within.
• Despite my previous bemoanings that my dream analysis has been pretty lacklustre, I have really been having a series of dreams which have quite disturbed me.
• I was more than a little spooked by the Religion Report this week (here) An awful story of alleged systematic child abuse within a 'respectable' religious order, where almost all of the serving brothers have had allegations brought against them. I am not involved. I don't know any of the people. But it has saddened me greatly. Perhaps it confronts an overly idealistic vision of the religious life, which the world sees through all too readily but which I have clung on to. What if, as the fiercest critics say, it is all just a sham and a cover for evil and neurosis? A case could be made.
• Yesterday, I saw my 89 year old friend. In the process of great decline. He is sad and depressed and will die sometime. His spirit is almost defeated. His body is packing up. His active mind is understimulated. There was little I could do or say to address any of this.
• This morning in my prayers I realised how fed up I am of all this.How angry with the God who seems to be playing "Yes Minister" with me!...yes this is what I call the Appleby effect. . I have noted it before when I have watched.. as I have this week.... ten episodes of that hilarious but bitterly cynical show which I got on DVD for my birthday
  

I am prepared to admit that all this might have some greater meaning...but enough is enough!!

'Tis the season

The season of Advent never fails (so it seems each year) to weave its magic. As the weeks go on and Christmas draws near so much unfolds that it is difficult to escape its challenge, its beauty.
In the northern half of the world the encroaching darkness and cold, is pierced by the bright bizarreness of Christmas lights which look fabulous for that reason.
Here in the south nothing could be more different. Particularly when we are struck by a rush of hot weather....yesterday over 40, more of the same today. So the bright purples of jacaranda (almost over), agapanthus (better than they have ever been) defiantly refuse to be bleached and echo in themselves the liturgical colour. Somehow the heat and the bright light seems very Advent too.
The daily meditation prayer on the Advent antiphons goes

O Wisdom,Lord and Ruler
Root of Jesse, Key of David ,
Rising Sun King of the nations,
Emmanuel
Come Lord Jesus

O Sapientia, O Adonai.
O Radix Jesse, O Clavis David,
O Oriens, O Rex Gentorum,
O Emmanuel.
Veni, Domine Jesus.

Resisting temptation

It's always challenging to continue a stream of blogging, but I have resisted many temptations this week

• I have resisted the temptation to blog about either Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard. And to say how there is a real danger that amidst all the hoo-hah about generational change, the real problem is that it may just be more of the same
  
• I have not even touched Australia's famous Test Cricket victory. Or to say how diufficult it is for a "former Pom" (and I use that expression advisedly, I think after spendiong 40 years here I am entitled to no longer be a Pom. Though it was interesting how the visit of relatives recently brings a slide back into former accentual patterns.
• Further to that I have resisted commenting on my current reading Mother Tongue by that amazing dilletante Bill Bryson , who seems to know enough about most things to keep me (and others) interested (some humourous stuff here)
• I certainly have resisted talking about the weather. Even though there have been four seasons in one week and it's going to be 38 tomorrow.
• I have resisted the temptation (because it only just crossed my mind) to remind those who need to be shriven to go to the box...because I forgot I was supposed to be going last night!!
• I certainly resisted the temptation (Vicky) to talk about Borat, which I did go to see. And I agree with David Stratton's comments that for a film that was 1 hour and10 minutes, it was about 60 minutes too long. And I am afraid I am too much of a rememberer of Auschwitz to find any anti-Semitism funny.
• I have resisted the temptation to discuss Fiji, or how it is remarkable that tourists coming back seem to have been largely unaffected by the coup.
• And I have definitely not talked about Christmas, Which is only 18 days away.
  

Needy

I guess the difference between dogs and cats is that ultimately dogs are very needy.
Our pet pooch is a quiet and affectionate animal and likes attention. Of course in this warmer weather you need to make sure that there is plenty of water as inevitably the older dog tends to get stressed pretty quickly.
This morning she had run out of water so I filled both her bowls as soon as I got up. She was glad of the relief.
Then a dilemma for her, because while she was drinking I stroked her back.
What should she do? She was very thirsty but here was I giving her affection.
Despite the fact that we are told that it is thirst which most strongly demands our attention, she gave into the need for affection.
So the need for affection would seem to be the strongest motivator. A lot like humans really!!

Global cooling

Wednesday     Shower or two.                         Min 11    Max 17
Thursday      Fine. Morning cloud.                   Min 13    Max 20
Friday        Fine. Mostly sunny.                    Min 10    Max 24
Saturday      Fine. Mostly sunny.                    Min 14    Max 30
Sunday        Fine. Mostly sunny.                    Min 15    Max 33
Monday        Hot. Late change.                      Min 17    Max 36

One of the things that I was taught to do at University (but I'm not very good at) was to look at statistical information properly, and to draw appropriate conclusions not (just) the ones that I wanted to.
Now, I'm generally a believer with regard to climate change. But during these bitterly cold days of late I have not heard one person suggest that this cold snap is heralding a new age of 'global cooling'....but you can bet that on Saturday we will hear once again from misreaders of statistics (like the weather forecast for the next few day above) about global warming!
So (far be it from me to suggest too often) little Johnny is right when he says that global warming is not going to happen tomorrow, and we need to be measured in our approach and response (here). But I cannot buy the argument that therefore we should do nothing until the "big players" (the US and China) get their acts together. Nor am I convinced thjat Howard really believes that, if he did then Australia would never do anything abotu anything.
I say we should do what we can, as soon as we can. Anything less is stupid.
Any way rug up and enjoy the day!!!