Long Weekend – Long Week

As you know, I love a long weekend.

But the problem with a long weekend is that, by comparison, even a four-day week can seem endless. We have been trying to relax a bit this weekend to compensate for what was a fairly frustrating work week.

Last weekend was a cracker. We went up to Forster with my family and played a bit of golf, did a lot of reading and spent plenty of time sleeping.

We went for a drive north to a little town called Wingham. We checked out the thousands of grey-headed flying foxes they have living there. At the Anglican Op shop I managed to pick up six second-hand books for under five bucks! Some great titles and authors in there too: The Crucible, Tale of Two Cities, Joseph Conrad, GK Chesterton. What a bargain!

Ready for another 3-day weekend. Next one’s not til October… 😦

Thursday Thought – John Pevely

Apologies for the day-delay.

My Poppa, Mum’s dad, passed away on Wednesday morning. He was very old and had recently lost his wife, my Nanna. He had cancer and was in a fair bit of pain in the last days.

I’ve blogged about him and my Nanna before.

My thoughts have been with him this Thursday. It is sad to say goodbye to him. But it is also a great joy to know that I will see him again in the new creation.

I’ve been de-mo’d

Alas, my mo is no longer with us.

We had a rehearsal for my brothers wedding last night and for the sake of the happy couple, I turned up clean-shaven.

I am having a few mo-withdrawal symptons, but otherwise I am quite happy to have my baby-smooth face back.

Speaking of the wedding, as the best man I am required to give a speech. Any hot tips for a successful best man’s speech?

Four In Hand

Went to Four In Hand restaurant for dinner last night to celebrate my brothers birthday.

For entree, I had a Pigs Ear Schnitzel! As unusual as that concept sounds – it was absolutely delicious. As was the barramundi for main.

Dessert was probably the highlight though. Macerated strawberries, basil sorbet and yoghurt granita. Yum!

Sad Weekend

Amidst the joy of the Wallabies win and the devastation of Cadel’s loss, my family had a sad weekend personally.

My Nanna passed away on Saturday night.

She was a Christian and 87, so it’s not entirely devastating or unexpected for her. Her body and mind had been deteriorating over the past few years.

She is now with Christ, which is better by far.

Hot Air in the Hunter

This weekend, we went with Adri’s family up to the Hunter Valley to celebrate Adri’s mum’s (x)0th birthday. (Actual number withheld)

On Saturday morning we went hot air ballooning. It was fantastic!

It was our first time up in a balloon and I really had no idea of what to expect. The ride itself was very smooth. The pilot varied our altitude between about 100 and 3000 feet and steered us over the Hunter Valley by using the different winds at different altitudes.

We got a spectacular view of the wineries and buildings around the valley. Below is Tower Winery – one of the more la-di-da places.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. At one point the skirt of the balloon caught fire and the pilot had to put it out with a fire extinguisher! I’m glad he was calm about it – I thought we were gawn! (see charred balloon below.

The landing was a little bit rough too. The winds were up, so we were coming in pretty fast. The pilot also managed to bring us in exactly in line with one of the other balloons so he had to dump us nice and quick to avoid running into them. We hit the ground quite hard and were dragged in the basket for about 20-30metres. Great fun!

After the ride we helped pack up the balloon (It all folds down into about the size of a washing machine) and we enjoyed a glass of champagne (as per tradition). The rest of the day was spent checking out some of the wineries. Fantastic!

Highly recommended should you get the chance.

58 years of service.

Yesterday my family went to a special celebration for my maternal grandparents.

My Nanna and Poppa are both into their 80s and time is starting to catch up with them. My Poppa has had a couple of heart attacks and his body moves a lot more slowly than it used to. For my Nanna, it is her mind that doesn’t move as quickly as it once did. So they have decided to move out of the family home they have lived in for the last 58 years and retire to Nuffield Village, an Anglican Retirement home in Castle Hill.

The reason we were celebrating this move yesterday is because they attended their last service at St Marks Yagoona, where they had attended services more or less every week for the past 58 years. (Probably been to over 3,000 services, allowing for missed weekends, Easters, Christmases, hatches, matches, and despatches.)

It was a great joy to see how my Grandparents have served God with their whole lives. So many past and present members of the congregation had such admiration for them both.

Poppa had been a church warden for many years and last month missed his first Parish Council meeting ever! He had been responsible for the churches building projects and expansion of property as well as the birth of the Parishioners Savings Fund. Nanna had been president of the Mothers Union and had been a faithful servant, much loved by the whole congregation.

I couldn’t help but think to myself – these people have not done anything spectacular, nothing that would make the front page, but they have lived a long life of faithful service to God and his church and, in hindsight, that seems HUGELY spectacular.

Perhaps there is nothing greater to do with your life, than to run the race faithfully.