Exercise

I have been making use of the local pool since it opened but after a while, laps get boring, especially in a 25 meter pool where you need to do twice as many to get as far.

Recently though, Aqua-aerobics started up and I have been waiting for an opportunity to go. Last night, this opportunity arrived and I went to see what happened. It was brilliant, about 20 people came and it turns out that you can make a whirl pool at one end of a long, big pool. it was tiring, I am stiff and it was absolutely hilarious. I fully recommend it to EVERYONE.

The most interesting thing though was the lady I met who said she was 24, and when I asked if she ever gets mistaken for younger she said she can pass for a 13 yr old. I think this is brilliant because I am 24 and still get mistaken for a 16 yr old.

YUCK

Sorry if you just ate lunch or similar. These gorgeous pictures at the built up slime and hair from the pipes under the bathroom sink.

Stirrups

Here is a picture of a stirrup iron. A strap of leather goes through the hole at the top and attaches to the side of a saddle. There is one on each side and your feet sit in them. This enable you to balance while the horse moves, and to stand up in the saddle to gallop or jump.

Here is the pair to this stirrup. A 30 kg child managed to do the during a lesson.

Impressive yes?

More Cats

Last Night, Romeo was being social and friendly. This took the form of asking to come into my cabin by squawking outside my door and then giving me a heart attack by suddenly clawing the flyscreen on the window next to my head at 10:00pm. I let him in and he began helping by sitting on my book, rubbing his head on my pencil and rearranging my belongings by knocking them onto the floor.

This picture of him really proud of his efforts to climb onto the high cupboard. He is the only cat I have met who, once completing a challenge, will look down and call out to you as you walk past. This was true on the cupboard last night as well. I find it amusing that he is so insecure that he needs to say "look at me" to passers by.

He was so friendly this morning, that he sat at my door and called out to me at 430 am.

Computers

I have a computer, obviously, I also watched enough of the IT crowd to know that when something goes wrong, you try forcing an unexpected reboot (aka have you tried turning it off and on again?).

The other day, my computer decided to do this by itself in the form of a forced shut down. This is ok except that afterwards it would not turn on again. I could not do the tried and tested Forcing Unexpected Reboot because it would not turn on again. I would push the on button, wait for absolutely nothing to occur and then shut the laptop, open it again and repeat this exhilerating process. Yesterday my laptop went to the computer doctor in the form of my bosses IT nerd and he fixed it (YAY)

Yes it was plugged in :)

State Pride

I am a New South Welshman, technically I even still live in NSW though only by about 2km. I never cared much about this, and mostly I still don't, although this year was the first year I cared enough about the State of Origin to ask how the games went. I still didn't watch them since I had nobody to explain them to me.

Recently though, state pride has welled up with the onset of daylight saving for NSW. Though I still live there, everywhere nearby is QLD so our clocks run to QLD time. I miss daylight saving terribly, I wake up at 5 in the morning and in a civilized state that would be 6 and nearly time to get up. once I woke up at 430 and the sun was about to come up, that is too early. Plus we miss out on the extended evening, at home the sun sets around 8pm and we have time to go for a walk, or play cricket, or whatever. Here it is down at 7 so walks after dinner (due to a lack of street lights) is out.

Then there is the CONSTANT complaining from the Queenslanders who have never had the benefit of daylight saving and think we are idiots for wanting it. That is like somebody who has never eaten a mango telling people who have that they are silly to enjoy them.

I miss daylight saving and I usually defend NSW when people are out to attack it.

Sneaky Pride

There are a lot of kinds of prides, there are the ones everybody knows about "I am too good to hang out with you" and there are the ones that are harder to spot and easier to pretend don't exist. These Sneaky Prides include "I am too sinful for God to be able to forgive me" and "Why should I do this job" and "She thinks she is so much better then me" and the sneakiest of all (in my opinion) the Humble Pride. This is not pride in Jesus, this is pride at how humble I am being and "look at this I am washing up after church without complaining, aren't I humble and helpful" This is one I struggle with a lot and I have noticed it more lately.

Jessica and I are beginning to learn Matthew chapter 6 which helpfully begins "Beware of doing your acts of righteousness before others that you may be seen by them, for then you will receive no reward from your father who is in heaven." This, I realized last night, means that the way to practice humility without pride is to do the unnoticed, thankless tasks without complaining or drawing attention to yourself. I have also found two other strategies to prevent prideful thoughts while I am serving, one is to sing to myself, the other is to share the job with another and make it an enjoyable and social occasion. Both of these strategies also prevent the "I am so hard done by" mentality.

Hand waving code

In the city, nobody waves to ANYONE unless they know them, even then they triple check before committing to a wave. In the country town though, the chances of knowing people you see are far higher, the longer you live there the more likely you will know them. This has made a "wave code" necessary. Contrary to the city persons belief, the country wave is not merely "the finger lift" That is only for incase you might know them, or just habit. The person who has spent his entire life in the small town does this to everyone based on the fact that he is acquainted with 80% of the residents. The 2 or 3 finger wave, is when you are pretty sure you recognize the car or driver but you can't be sure so play it safe. Then there is the "Hey look, there's so-and-so" wave. This is the lean forward, hand up near wind screen, energetic side to side motion to attract attention and show companionship with the other person.

The city person sees only the finger lift from country people who do this on the off chance that they know you, therefore the city persons conclusion is that this is the country mans wave.

Horse and wind

Last night we were putting away the horses and it was pretty windy and feeling like it should storm. The new horse watched us put away the others and then I went to get him for his turn. I went in the gate and he trotted up to me, then when I reached out to touch him, he rushed off and bucked, reared and jumped all four feet into the air as high as he could. Then he rushed up and sniffed me again, then went charging round the paddock. It took five or six goes off this before he let me put on his halter and lead him to the shed. It was a bit like he knew he had to go to bed but he wanted to use up some energy first.

Rush up to me then say "Wait a minute I just gotta..." then leap around like a puppy, then come back and say "Ok I am ready... no wait" and rush off again. In a 15 hand horse this is a bit scary but cool to watch.

Dogs making entertainment

Here is Friday, the teenage Labrador puppy. She is pretty good at finding her own entertainment. This rarely involves her toys but often includes washing, shoes, bottles, containers and, beds.

She now sleeps on the ground.

Making lunch again

Here are some more damper creations we made for lunch. This is Mickey Mouse

This is a man and two rocks
This is a man being hanged. Cheerful I know.

Random Pictures

These are some roses that I was walking past, I didn't want to pick them and I wanted to play with my camera so I practiced taking nice pictures.

Here we have a man from church looking a bit surprised that I took a photo.

Unicorn Pony

Here is a picture of Xena, this was taken just before she had a wash so she isn't as blindingly white as she could be. Nevertheless we are all of the opinion the if we included a horn she could pass as a unicorn.

Summer School

Most year since I was a little kid, our family has gone to Katoomba in the blue mountains for Summer School. I love it, the camping, the people, the kids program and the adults program, the rocks, the weather, the sleepless nights. The children's programs at Summer School are so good, I thought that it was lucky the adults had something to entertain them while we went to the kids thing.

On the way to Summer School, every summer, all the way up the mountain along the highway, are bright yellow daisy type flowers. I grew to associate seeing these flowers with going to Summer School and I have liked them ever since. Also warm whether makes me begin to look forward to Summer School.

Here is a picture of some Summer School flowers that I found the other day.