Obama on Fatherhood...

This is for me, one of the more significant speeches he will give. A couple of quotes..

...Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it.

But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing – missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it. [...] We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child – it’s the courage to raise one.

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And here's a link to the full text, as prepared for delivery.

Movies: Boxing Day...

One of our Christmas traditions (since 2002 - when the first Lord of the Rings film came out) is to go as a family and see a film on boxing day. It was quite easy at first, we saw the three Lord of the Rings films, then Phantom of the Opera (2005), in 2006, we saw The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. After having a look at the films this year: Atonement, The Golden Compass, Enchanted, Alien vs Predator: Requiem and Two Days in Paris. Though some of them won't work Alien vs Predator (yuck~!), and we thought that Atonement might be a little bit serious for Boxing Day, so we decided to have an Enchanted afternoon, which should be great fun.

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I'm looking forward to see how 2008 shapes up; 2007 was the year of the "sequel". The Spiderman, Shrek, PotC, and Ocean's franchises had version 3.0 released, and were mostly disappointing (as for me, was The Simpsons'.

Though I think I've seen more films this year, the standouts were: As it is in Heaven, Once and Amazing Grace.

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On a completely different topic, there's a fascinating article describing how Australian's use their annual leave in today's Herald, and it certainly rings true for me. I certainly haven't taken my four weeks leave this year, and the barriers described are not alien to me. There is certainly a need to "work hard" at resting.

In which the Long Weekend is mentioned.

Fi and I went down to Canberra for the long weekend. Was really quite lovely to get away for a few days, and get to spend a bit of time with her family and our friends.

We all went out to Tidbinbilla for a picnic on Saturday, which was so quiet and peaceful. One of the nice surprises was seeing a couple of Platypuses (some might say Platypi?). I have to admit I would not have known what to look for, but Fi’s dad pointed them out for us. We generally saw the ripples in the water as they came up and then dived back down.

We listened to the last five minutes of the AFL Grand Final as we were driving home. While I was a little disappointed in the loss, the Sydney Swans have had a fantastic year, and they could leave the field with their heads held high, they gave it everything, and came back to one point of the West Coast Eagles (who are worthy winners). West Coast and Sydney played out two of the closest Grand Finals in the last 30 years.

The Grand Final is also the 64th time the Swans have played a match decided by 1 point. I’m already looking forward to the first bounce next season.

Sunday morning we went to St Andrews Presbyterian Church and then Floraide with Deb which was lovely. (Deb has posted some photos on her blog and I’ll post a few later).

Sunday night, we went and saw The Devil Wears Prada. It is quite a feel-good-type-film, and I quite enjoyed it. A couple of scenes stood out, firstly one where Andrea becomes self-aware (in the context of she was made aware of what she did to her colleague by choosing to go to Paris), and secondly a line that was given to Nate (Andrea’s boyfriend), 'the phone calls you always take is the relationship you are in’, and I think this is a helpful reminder for us.

Monday morning we had brunch with Fi’s school friends, then went to do a bit of shopping (mainly clothes shopping) before heading to Manuka for lunch, and back to Floraide before starting the drive back to Sydney. It was a very enjoyable weekend.

News in brief

I had a great Easter weekend, I spent most of it in Wollongong. It was quite lazy, the highlights were a day on the road to Berry, and Berrima. Getting out in the fresh air was really lovely. I spent Saturday with my brother and a couple of our friends playing War Craft. Monday visited the new Sea Cliff Bridge (pictured) on the road to Wollongong, which was great. Matt, Mel and I went and saw V for Vendetta, which I kind of liked.

Last weekend Fi and I went up to Newcastle for A's (Fi’s sister) graduation. We had a great time. It was interesting seeing how the University ran its graduation. The occasional address became a slight rant about the attention (or lack of it) the current Federal Government is paying to higher education (while I agreed with the sentiment, I do not think that a graduation should be made a political event).

The response on the other hand was quite fun and passionate, focusing our attention on how we approach our future. (I like the idea of having a response by one of the graduates, something that didn’t happen at my graduation). It was fantastic to spend some time with Fi’s family as well, getting to know them better. We spent Saturday out and about driving through the Hunter Valley visiting the vineyards, quite a beautiful drive too.

Monday night, we had a coffee and desert night for R. who was in our bible study group last year, and is returning to Scotland next month. It was great to get to know her(and her fiancé), while they were in our neck of the woods.

We're off to Wollongong tomorrow afternoon to celebrate my brother’s birthday.

Sport in Brief

My entries are rarely complete without some sport news... So here goes two quick pieces of news:

J. Gillespie 201 not out; and

Arsenal defeated Villireal to reach the Final of the Champions League, and will play Barcelona (who beat AC Milan) in one of the more promising finals for some time.

Photo: Dad.

2005: What Made the Year that Was

Well, now that we have got a little more accustomed to 2006, I will post a bit more of some personal reflections of 2005. In summary, after quite a shaky start with work 2005 turned into a great year.

During 2005 I was struck by better nature of humanity – evident in the generosity of people responding to the Tsunami, and before Christmas I was struck by the Herald’s readers who paid for Jess Maulder, another potential, but unlikely, Australian of the Year, to go back to Thailand (where she was last Christmas) for the memorial. The earthquake in Kashmir resulted in Indian and Pakistani cooperation. But at the same time the darkside was all to easy to see.

2005 also reminded us that we are unable to control our world- the Tsunami, the Hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico and the earthquake in Kashmir, being a few examples.

While I was rereading my diary for the year, I came across a list of what I was looking forward to in 2005, on that list (along with a concert or two) was my Gran’s 90th birthday, seeing my sister, and joining Community Bible Church, and no surprise that these were high on the list of highlights for 2005.

It was great to be able to go down to New Zealand and join with my family in celebrating her birthday. I always find these family gatherings quite hard, because we do not see our cousins all that often, but I always enjoy catching up with them, and great seeing how they have grown.

I think it was in March, Lynley and I decided that we would across to the US together, and our holiday was a high point of the year, as was her coming home just before Christmas. Having Christmas together as a family was fantastic.

I had resolved myself during the year to read through the entire bible each year, I did not achieve this. My bible reading has not been great this year, which is one thing that I am seeking to change in 2006.

I found it really great met up with three Korean guys from the morning congregation, we spent our time looking through the book of Philippians, which was quite rewarding for me.

Community Bible Church, was a great group of Godly Christian’s to be involved with, and I found the preaching to be quite challenging and confronting, but at the same time quite comforting, and encouraging. It is with a touch of sadness that I leave Unichurch and move to Barneys on Broadway. (F. and I will definitely miss the Graduate Bible Fellowship – and our bible study group at A+B’s)

The highlight of the year was one that this time last year I hadn’t expected, but the last 9 months or so with F. has been great. It is a blessing being able to spend time with each other and seeing our relationship grow. :)

So what does 2006 hold, I am not one really for resolutions, but I think looking ahead I would like to see my life reflect my faith my clearly, particularly in my relationships, with my family, my flatmates, and Fiona. I am looking forward to getting to know more of my brother’s and sisters at Barney’s and being able to encourage and minister to them, and I would like to read the bible once in the next 18 months, (or twice in three years), and more generally I would like to read and write more often. I intend to speak to people at University about the possibilities for my Masters so watch this space.

In 2006 I also am looking forward to the Australian Open Tennis, the World Cup (Australia’s first in 32 years); a few more concerts, and I am sure there will be other pleasant surprises through the course the year as well.

In Brief

• F and I had a great weekend down in Canberra, visiting her family and friends, catching up with Deb. It has been way to long since I’ve been to Canberra, and it was such a relaxing weekend.

• Friday night F and I went to see Turtles Can Fly. A depressing and uncomfortably real film set in a refugee camp on the Kurdish / Iraqi border. It’s a must see.

• Tuesday Gaz a few friends and I are going to hear Gareth Evans speak at UNSW (What price he gets asked an off topic question about Latham and the Labor Party). Updated link to transcript of lecture.
  

• In just over four weeks I am heading overseas to visit my sister in Dublin and then visit London, Washington, Miami, and New York. While in London I will see Sigur Ros, and the stops in Miami and New York include U2 concerts.

Been away too long

Feels like I’ve been away for while. Seeing as it is now almost a month since I have last blogged something.

Yesterday, Australia lost the Ashes – no no the men are still playing, but the Australia women lost their test series with England 1-0. And a few days from now we will see spring. Spring translates into the Australian Rules finals time. After one of the best seasons in years we are four weeks from the Grand Final. The Swans are in the finals, and we’ll see how they go. Before I stop talking about sport just have two more thoughts – great win for the All Blacks – was a cracker of a game – 31-27. Yes, Australia was not playing, but the sentence - New Zealand wins the Australian Rules Tournament just needs to be written.

Had pause for thought a few weeks ago reading a letter written by a parent to Grant Thomas a professional coach was interesting. It makes the point that the Junior AFL Competition had just got over a shortage of Umpires, then after a professional coach trashes the Umpires – parents start doing it and welcome back umpire-shortage. Point to make here, is that too many times I criticise decisions. Yet the human element of sport is the fact that people do make mistakes. Particularly those in positions of promience need to model respect for the officials.

Been a good weekend – went to my Aunts’ farewell service on Friday night, then Sunday, was spent at Dee Why for my Uncle’s farewell, they are going back to Dunedin, NZ where my Aunt will be taking up a position as Rector at Knox Cathedral. I’ll miss having them both in Australia.

T-minus seven days (and yes counting is involved) …

In about seven days times, I will jump courtesy of Freedom across the ditch to New Zealand, and to Dunedin. I always love flying to New Zealand it is like a sort of homecoming. I mean I do live in Australia, and feel home here, but there’s something extra-special about New Zealand.

I’m heading back for my grandmother’s 90th Birthday. Yes, I have to admit that I’m not as close to her as I would like. I’m taking opportunity now to write a few reflections. But I wish I knew her better.

I remember going down to visit Dunedin, and we would always have a walk together. I also remember the fact that we would always receive a phone call on our birthdays; she was interested in hearing what we were up to, where we were heading. I feel doubly blessed, in that she raised my father, and aunts, and uncles, all of whom I treasure. [I know I don’t say that often enough, but I know it is true]. In some ways I have found it hard thinking about special stories, and incidents, because each time we visited her it felt special. I won’t forget staying with her just after I finished my High School, and just have meals, and spend quality time with her.

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Personally though, this trip has come at just the right time. I am absolutely scattered from organising the move (and dealing with the ‘fall-out’), was blessed by having a great colleague, who was priceless in terms of keeping me sane, and did way more than realistically she should have been expected of doing.

It is going to be great to get away from the office, and have a change of scenery for four so days. Will be great to see the cousins as well, though, once I get back it’s three-or-so weeks until the Conference I’m organising at work.

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It was with pleasure I read the SMH this morning and how the Liberal Government is now changing their policy relating to refugees. While not an abolishment of Mandatory Detention, it is a step forward. Though now I would like to hear an apology (especially if the majority of those on TPV end up being granted asylum), for the damage has been done.

Another welcome…

Attentive eyes would have noticed a new blog listed on the blogroll. A Witty Title – is written by my brother.

I am quite grateful for the conversations that I have had with my brother over the years, he has been quite an encouragement, and has sharpened my understanding of myself and God.

I look forward to continuing to read his posts.