An Inconvenient Truth

I went and saw the doco by Al Gore "An Inconvenient Truth". I highly recommend this movie and that is quite a feat in itself (as I am expremely pick in the movies I recommend to people). I think that no matter what side of the global warming debate you are on, this is a worthwhile movie to see.

Nurf Rocket

Nurf Rocket - I took this by mistake on Saturday. Was just trying to take a photo, but didn't realise it was on the video instead.

Hmmm... Still a newby to the camera i guess!!!!!

2:15am

Well it's 2:15 am on Sunday night (monday morning) and I can't sleep at the moment. Too much going through my head to start off with.

I will make an amendment to my earlier post about my going away party. There were a number of people who appologies to me at Church for not being able to come due to either unexpected work commitments or unexpected friend's dropping by, and to those people I am greatful for the appology. There were a couple however who just said they couldn't be bothered (and they are the one's who annoy me).

I think that's about all for now. Not really thinking to staight at the moment due to the time. So I'm gonna go and do something to occupy my time.

Going Away Party

Well, I had my going away party today. It turned out to be a bit of a miserable day all over really. The weather was shocking (it's the end of October so coming into Summer, and generally usually reasonable hot and cloudless. Unfortunately for me it was about 15 excessive cloud and occasionally the odd bit of spitting rain.) To top it all off, of all the people who I had invited along to enjoy the day with me, there was only about 17 people turned up and that includes myself and my parents. Now there were a few people who I knew couldn't come because of prior arrangements and I don't mind that because I knew that was the case. However the problem I have ended up with is that there were a number of other people who said that they would rock up even if it was for only a couple of hours or less (this does not refer to those couple of people who rang just as I was leaving), but these people never did show up nor did they bother to send a message to say sorry they couldn't make it.

Now this is similar to what happened for my birthday at the beginning of the year (where I invited about 30 odd people and maybe 10 people rocked up (given it was a 40degree day) but still basically nobody sent a message or anything else to say sorry for not being able to come on the day (that 30 people is minus those who had already told me they couldn't come).

Now I'm sorry if I sound narky, but I have lost my time for a lot of people, and I still think that some respect/curtesy is due when someone has invited you and something unexpected happens or comes up disenabling one to make it to a prior engagement to send a message saying sorry but I am unable to make it. Now as you may have guessed this is kinda depressing that of all the people I know, only a few decide to rock up and enjoy the day with me.

Now please don't get me wrong I am extremely greatful and had a great time with those who did rock up and those people way rock. But for those who didn't I am getting pissed off with. I try my hardest to be social and friendly to people and the way I get repaid is by people being dickhead's and unkind to me.

I honestly don't know what I have done to deserve the way I get treated by some people, but it's extremely depressing and annoying. Some people wonder why I am leaving and going overseas (where i have told they that I wanna learn to snowboard and experience somewhere else for a time), but there really isn't many people I will miss when I'm away, purely because I don't think I will be missed myself by many people. I know I should probably look on the bright side of life and be thankful for those who did rock up or ring and not worry about those who didn't bother, but it's damn hard. Because in the end all I wanted was for people to show some curtesy and thoughtfulness and help me enjoy my party and day.

I don't know why I do this to myself to be honest, I knew this would happen and I knew how many people would rock up, so I don't know why I am surprised at how many people didn't rock up, nor am I surprise at the people who didn't rock up. Way too many people I know are two faced, they are nice to my face and occasionally include me in their event's, but when it come's around the opposite way, they don't care or give a shit, and to be brutally honest I am getting extremely fed up with it, and it is these people who are making it extremely easy for me to leave.


One last word, that I think is quite funny and probably quite typical of the Christian community. The people at my now old work placed like me more and I probably enjoyed their company more and were nicer to me (and so were probably truer friends) that some of those who profess to be Christian's, who I think of as friends. I don't know whether this is the same all over the world in churches, but it seems to be pretty prevelant in the majority of Churches in Australia. As someone once said "The Church can be the loneliest place on Earth"

I honestly don't blame those who are non-Christian for have a bad impression of the Church - Coz I definately do.

Finally it has come

I know some will probably think from the title that I am talking about the fact that I am about to get on a plane - however you would be wrong on this assumption. I am actually meaning that my final day at work has arrived and is now at an end (bit of a glorious end at that as well). Today was my last day at paid work for what will probably be at least 2-3 weeks at this stage. It was a bit of a good day to be honest with a tinge of sadness in there just for good measure.

Good because I no longer have to put up with some of the people that I have had to work with over the last 18 months. Sad because I have also enjoyed working with some of the other people in the offices I have regular contact with. Not only that for the last 18 months (less a couple of week's for my holidays earlier this year and a week off for being ill) I have been travelling roughly the same route to the same building to do the same job with a few regular people (the other's have come and gone while I've been there). Like I said earlier I have enjoyed working with some of there people (even when the job at times has really sucked big time). But I was farewelled in decent style with some lovely gifts - including a nice chocolate floral display (lotsa chocolate bars and absolutly no flowers - yes I like flower's but chocoates are some much better and I get to take them on the plane flight with me!!!!!)

So now I have finished work, the real job lies ahead. Making sure that I have everything that I need and have to do done before I head over to Canada. Also this leaves me very much reliant on God when I get to Canada for finding me a job at some point in time.

One last thing, I was thinking that while I did have a place to stay at once I got to Canada, I would be without a bed for a period of time until I was able to either buy one, loan one or scab one. Well needless to say God is definately looking after me in that regard, as my new roommate has just informed me that his current roommate (who I am taking over from) is willing to loan me her double bed for the time being (which is a great thing, coz at least I'll have somewhere nice and confortable to sleep on after being awake for over at least 27hrs staight (I do not sleep well if at all on planes). So I will apologise now to anyone who has to come in contact with me on my first night in Vancouver if I am a little on edge and short with you - it will most likely not be intentional, but just a byproduct of overtiredness)

Reality

Well today was my last day of full-time work for a little while. I go part time for the next week (which is also my last week) at my current employment. It finally hit me at about 4.30 that while I knew I was going to Canada and I was looking forward to it and couldn't wait, the actually reality of leaving a place where I had spent the last 18months or so and grown in both career wise and self-confidence in my abilities was actually coming to an end.

While this is a good thing, as I have noticed some bad traits starting to happen as a result of my work environment (there have been quite a few previously, but some extra one's later) I have been feeling like it is definately time to move on and refocus myself.

Oh well, all things are for the best and I know my time in Canada will be different, challenging and exciting all in one, and it will be good to hopefully expand my horizon's beyond just holiday's in different countries to working and spending time with new people and in a completely different environment to what I am use to in many many ways.

The Making of Beauty

I came accross this earlier tonight and thought I'd share for what it's worth The Making of Beauty and see if and what type of reaction it get's from people.

It's not new new's but is still quite interesting in seeing it all happen in action instead of just words. Society is way too warped and focused on outward beauty too much.

GOD at Work

Well, to give a quick bit of History I was diagnosed almost 2 years ago with Sleep Apnea (not a great thing to be diagnose with when your just 25 and not a pleasant thing to consider you are going to have for the rest of your life. Now I did decide to try a couple of different options (the first being a CPAP machine - those with or know of someone with sleep apnea will know probably straight away what this machine is and does - to put it shortly for those who don't it's a machine you hook your self up to at night and it forces air in through your nose/mouth to try to keep the airways open so you breath). Now trust me when I say they are not the most comfortable nor unintrusive machines to have and after a 6 week trial period I could not justify the difference in my sleep patterns with the cost of the machine. So instead I decided to try a breathing method called the Buteyko breating Method, this seemed to work, and I will admit it still does when I decide to do it regularly for period's of time (however it also demands almost ritualistically devotion to achieve the best results from it, which I am not the best at when left to my own devices.

So to get back on track (sorry for the slight explanation detour) about 6 weeks ago my church they held a healing service. I decided to go up and ask for healing of my condition. The best part of it was that the following week I had great sleep and will now say that I believe that I was healed of my condition. However I was unwilling to boldly say so without the medical proof to back up my claim (and this is where I believe my downfall was), as the following and subsequent weeks I have been again suffering from the sleep apnea. Following (weeks after) Clovercrest hosted R.T. Kendall, I decide to do something from one of the many side track stories he told and get the courage to again ask for healing of my sleep apnea.

This now gets me to my current situation. While I have not yet been completely healed of this condition, I believe that this time God is slowly at work in healing me, as I was unable/unwilling to accept the last miracle, that I will now have to wait patiently as God slowly provides the healing that I so desperately want.

I will let you know in the future how this is going.

The Count Down

Well this time in 3 week's (2 week's left at work) I will be in Canada on the start of a year long discovery tour of myself, and what God has planned for me while over there.

I can honestly say I am getting nervous but mainly at night time's and only on the odd occasion still. But the excitment well and truly over rides that by far. Oddly enough my brain's gone blank on what to write now, so I'll sign off and add later.

Phones & Other Bizarre Happenings

Two interesting things happened today. The first happened while I was out getting prices for my new camera and then on my way to purchasing my new backpage for my trip. As I was walking down Rundle Mall (The main shopping area in the actual city, I came across a couple of guys walking along in costume. One was in a red lycra Devil's suit and the other was in a female police officers getup. Now this is not a regular occurance, however it really didn't take me by surprise that this was happening. Which is a little wierd as a few years ago this would have probably shocked and made me overtly curious about it all. However today I just ask one of them whether it was due to a bet, or just for the fun of it all. Apparently it was just for the fun of it.

Now the second thing the happened to me today is that I found out that in Australia while people complain about the phone coverage and cost of services, at least we are not as bad as the US and Canada (BTW I real have a much of a muchness attitude with the Australia mobile phone coverage). We only have to pay for out-going calls, but as I have only realised (however I didn't already know that it happened), in Canada I am most likely going to have to pay for incoming calls to my phone as well as the out going calls. Now one thing I didn't know about was that in Canada you are charged a monthly fee to have access to the emergency 911 service. To me that is a bit of a rip off to be honest, as I am acustome to not having to pay for such a service as it is provided free of charge to all users and there is not monthly access fee whether you use the service or not.

Hmmm... should be fun finding a phone service I like and am happy with. May not actually happen either and will have to probably settle for something in the end. Oh well these things happen I guess.

Now on a happier and lighter note, I purchased my new digital Camera today and got a decent deal on it as well. Ended up with a Canon IXUS 60 with a 1GB Sandisk Ultra 11 memory card that only cost me $44.00 - $50.00 saving of the original sale price. Damn I'm good!!! :)

Job Opportunities

Since I am leaving my current job to go to Canada, it left it open for the company to hire someone else to take over my position. However instead of getting someone at the head office in Adelaide they will be hiring 2 people, one for each of the hub-centres for each of the two regions I looked after (I was looking after the WA sites and the QLD sites). - Kinda makes me feel special that they need two people to take over from me!!

Anyway, there is now an opportunity for the other Fin Analyst to take the position up in Gladstone. Now at first I will admit that I got a bit jealous. However as I realised this afternoon on my way home from work, I should not feel this way as the position would not have been made had I not decided that I was going to leave and travel to Canada for a year.

Now while I think this will be a good opportunity for my fellow worked, I have some doubts about her ability to actually do the job. Not that I do not think she would be capable, but I just do not think she is ready for the position and to take on the role in it's format for various reasons which I will not go into.

Lucky for me, as I have stated to her, as I have expressed my feelings that she needs to take it slowly in her decision and think about it carefully as it will be a major change to her lifestyle and will require a large amount of work and stress to go with it. For me I am able to stand on the outside for once as an unbias observer and give my opinion's in regards to what I believe will be beneficial to herself and her future career prospects.

But I guess it bring's up a nice little ponder. How do you handle a situation where you do not believe someone would be able to hand a postion, but you do not want to hurt their feelings nor dent their emotional well being either?......

That I do not know, and as yet I have yet to be able to figure it out either. Maybe one day I'll figure it out, but then again maybe I won't. I guess all I can do is provide an unbiased opinion (if there is ever such a thing) and provide good advice where it is warranted.

Beautiful Day

It's another nice day outside at the moment. It start off pretty ordinary earlier this morning (when I finally got up) and rained for a short period of time, but it has now cleared up and there is a reasonable amount of blue sky outside.

At this time in 5 weeks I will be on a Cathay Pacific flight on my way to Vancouver to start what I hope will be a year long journey of expanding my experiences even more, welcoming changes to my thought patterns and having an overall different time in a completely different setting. To those of you who wounder and are reading this, this journey has been in the making for about 2 years. Problem to start off with was that I was really unsure where I was going to be headed and a number of places did go through my head until I finally settled on Canada.

Why Canada? I dunno actually, it was just the place which stuck in my head, let allow the fact that I now want to learn how to snowboard, have a white Christmas and a white Birthday and go to a culture completely different to that which is prevalent in Australia. This is possibly the biggest reason I have for leaving the shores of sunny Australia just before the nice hot summer. (Now there is something which I am sure I will miss is the heat - instead I will be getting colder at the wrong time of the year for my body - will wait to see how my body copes with that shock). At least the Aussie weather is giving me a bit of heat before I head off over to the cold, and I get a bit of a summer this year. I still can't believe that I will get two winter's in a row.

I swear that I am doing this the wrong way around!!!

Anyway I'll be going looking at camera's and backpack this week (more likely next weekend). I all ready have an idea of the camera I want, I just want to get prices so that I can compare and get a better package deal that I would have got with out prices and quotes to compare.

Oh well that is all I shall write to day, as I am going to go outside now and enjoy a bit of the sun and warmth before heading out to Church tonight.