Friday 1 June 2007

I love bored science nerds...

Maybe if we'd done things like this at school, I would have done science... (who cares that it's in Spanish!)


I remember swimming in pools like this, but it was weather inflicted....



Don't try this at home...


Pretty.... And it's a peugeot... And yes it is Richard Hammond presenting... And don't forget that slow release mechanism of... what was it again...?


And now i'd better go and get ready to go to Synod...

Sunday 27 May 2007

Movies I've watched recently and would recommend.

Well would you look at that. It's almost exam time again. So MOVIE TIME!

Spiderman 3
: Spiderman returns this time as a confused student, with issues in his personal life, as he discovers that the identity of his uncle's killer was wrong, and the real killer has now escaped. Spidey sees in his mind how it must have gone, a malicious murder. He starts to think about revenge, at the same time as a strange alien form falls to earth, that enhances the negative emotions already felt by it's carrier.

There are new villains in this movie, with the Sandman and Venom, and the Harry the New Goblin returns to get vengence for the death of his father.

There are very strong overtones of the pain jealousy, revengeful thoughts and disunity can bring, and even stronger ones of the healing effect of forgiveness. At times they can be a little cloying, but overall it is an entertaining movie. In places, I found the music to be too obvious and manipulative. I don't appreciate movies where I can sense myself being manipulated to think a certain way - I'd much prefer it were subtley done.

While this is not a perfect film, I went in expecting it to be be far worse than the others, and I cannot understand where this opinion came from. The plot developed, and the film did not drag. The fights were entertaining, and the use of computer graphics, while at times obvious, did not detract. I loved the scenes with an Emo Spiderman strutting his stuff, and thought it a worthy member of the trilogy.



Garden State: Andrew Largeman returns home for a family funeral, and decides not to take his emotion surpressant drugs with him, making him drug free for the first time in 15 years. His visit is a rediscovery of life, as he reconnects with friends and family.

This movie is a bit of an Orson Wells attempt by Zach Braff, but it's one of my favourites! He directed, wrote and starred in this quiet comedy, which thankfully does not have (too much of) the usual American in-your-face humour. It is for the little things that I enjoy it, for Natalie Portman's compulsive liar, for the furniture-less house, the petrol nozzle. It is a sad story, but also uplifting. While predictable, there are still unexpected turns on the road to the inevitable outcome, and as with all feel-good films, the interest comes in how they get to the end, rather than the end itself.

It's obvious that this movie was made by a young person, and it has the good feeling of being a first, a bit experimental. The jokes are immature at times, but that's ok, they're funny.

Watch this film, expect some swearing and some drug use, but also expect an intriguing story of a person searching for the ability to feel emotions, and the journey (literal and metaphorical) he takes to get there. It's good, and for some reason I put it in the same kind of category as Saving Grace and Little Miss Sunshine (maybe it's the drug thing...??) I loved it the first time I saw it at the movies, and the second time in Austria, the third time, on dvd, I got more out of it, and the fourth time this week I just laughed.



Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: I was pretty pumped about this one, and I wasn't disappointed! Captain Jack Sparrow is missing and everyone wants him back for Davy Jones' locker, for their own reasons. Off they set on a crusade to rescue him, save the world and stop the evil people all in 3 hours.

The plot is a bit confusing - who wants to save whom for what reason isn't always clear, but since when has that been a problem in adventure movies? All the usual characters are there, and as a continuation from number 2, it is far more satisfying to watch than the 2nd. I found it a little sad, but after the credits comes some closure (WAIT TILL AFTER THE CREDITS!)...

There are some running jokes continued, and the usual frivolities. It has some fantastic computer graphics, enhancing the fun fight scenes. There is violence, and some scary scenes, so take someone to hide behind if you're that way inclined (otherwise take someone who needs to hide... I can suggest a few...), but it is immensably enjoyable. There is room for another, which would make me happy, but who knows - the rumours are unclear about that.

If you enjoyed the first Pirates movie, go see this one! At almost 3 hours long, it has the potential to drag and be boring, but I barely noticed the time going by, so don't worry about that. Go in to have fun, and you'll be fine!




Little Miss Sunshine: Olive wants to be a beauty queen. She gets into the Little Miss Sunshine competition, in California, but they must drive from somewhere much further away (it's another American state I know that much....). The family has a few problems, a motivational speaker who fails, a grandfather who was kicked out of the nursing home for starting a cocaine habit, a Nietzsche following brother who's taken a vow of silence, a suicidal scholar uncle, a mother trying to hold them all together, and Olive, the completely normal, average 7 year old girl. They all pile into a kombi for a road trip!

This movie is hilarious for the twists put into a basic road trip story - I wouldn't usually expect some body smuggling, or a horn that jsut won't stop. It has hope, without being horribly corny, and the end is satisfying without being sickly sweet.

Watch this when you want a great laugh, watch it with friends and chocolate. It's a little odd, not your usual road-trip film, and some have found it a little slow or haven't understood it at all. But it's worth watching, especially if you like Garden State or Saving Grace.

Wednesday 23 May 2007

Do you think there's a special fairy...

...who comes and gives you 10 extra zips and makes them extra loud when you're in the library?

Sunday 8 April 2007

The True Story of Easter 2007

Once upon a time, there was a girl called Imo.


Once day, Imo woke up at 4am, to her cat sitting on her head. She was a little grumpy, but then realised that it was Easter Sunday, and she'd have to get up in an hour anyway. She tried to go back to sleep, but it didn't work and finally at 4:59 she got out of bed, to the irritation of the cat, who was wondering where her plaything was going.

Imo showered, dressed and breakfasted, then headed outside to await her lift. While she waited, the sky started to light up in spectacular colours. Imo took some worse than average photos of the city in the almost no light


Eventually, just as Imo worked out how to get the minimal light to be used optimally, Ruth turned up to collect her. It was now 5:50am, and really far too early to be conscious, but Imo had no real problem, having been awake for almost 2 hours now. She responded to Ruth and Jacks' 'Good morning' with perhaps a little too much energy for the time.

They took off on a trip up Huon Road and met with a few other cars at the Fern Tree Tavern, before setting off further up Hobart's little hill, that is affectionately called the Mountain, or Mt Wellington, when it's in trouble.

As they drove up and up, they saw the sky over the city starting to light up, and the road up ahead started to glow with that pre-sunrise light.

Suddenly, Jack twisted and went 'eek', and it was revealed that his hot water bottle had bitten him.

It was a race against the clock, pretty sky and sunrise, and they were in danger of losing.

They reached the top, and it was as light as day. Everyone piled out of their cars, and we headed off for the lookout platforms. Jack was mourning the destruction of his hottie, and moaned about the burnt patch on his tummy. He got very little sympathy.

It was still very early. About 6:20am.


Everyone looked out over the city, and ohhed and ahhed about the absolutely PERFECT day and sunrise. It was so beautiful, and they praised God for how perfect it was. It wasn't cold or windy on the top of the mountain, which is a rare occurance, and there was a Dawn Service happening in the lookout house. That ended, and people came out and lots of 'Good mornings' and 'Happy Easter's were said.


Everyone could see very far, and they eagerly anticipated the sunrise. While it wasn't too cold, and all were dressed warmly, everyone's fingers started to go numb, and the warmth of the sun was anticipated.

Some of the party went to the other platform to see the sunrise from there.

The sun started to come up. First it was a glow.

Then a shimmer.
Then a sparkle.
Followed by the full force of the sun as it came out to play.
Everyone rejoiced in the light, as it hit the mountain.

Suddenly, in the sunlight, it became obvious who all the people there were. (There were a few couples...)

Ruth and Jack
Liz and Phil
Pat and Mez
Mark (trying to look seriously out at the world, with Pat)
And Phil, Heather and Katherine.
Caleb and Matt were also there, but being camera shy people that they are, this is the only photo with them in it. (And what a mighty hat Caleb is displaying!)
And everyone who was there....What a silhouette... Lucky we can see the landscape around Ruth really.... :-P
There's those cloudstills.... (clouds that look like waterfalls.....)
Oh, artistic shot of what happens when Kath runs away from me taking her photo.

And those final shots of picturesque Hobart at dawn.....

What an amazing, perfect start to a wonderful Easter.

And now the sun is starting to set again. There's something extremely satisfying about seeing a whole day's sunlight, from the rise to the set. But I think it's something that shouldn't be done too often, to keep it a novelty... :-D

Merry Easter everyone!

Friday 6 April 2007

Two years to the event

This day two years ago I was in Austria, trying to solve a dilema. I was on Easter Break from school, and my school friends were going out in the evening of Good Friday to celebrate the break, and I couldn't decide if I should or not.

I really wanted to - I'd only been in Austria for a month or so, and wanted to see Altstadt at night, and go out and have fun with my new friends, but it was Good Friday, and it just felt wrong to go and have so much fun on the anniversary of the death of the most important person in my life.

I didn't go, and spent the day in silent suffering - from indecision and PMS that brought on homesickness. I guess that was one way of looking at Good Friday, but I've been thinking about it today, and I think that if I was given the chance again, I would go.

Jesus died. That's sad. But he rose again. That's happy. If he hadn't died, he wouldn't have risen again. So that makes his death a happy thing.

Good Friday is for reflecting on his death, and what it brought (hoorayness for us), and I think it's very understandable to want to stay at home and not do anything fun at all, but if you are just wasting that time, wishing you'd done something else, then it's not the best use of the time. I suspect that had I gone, I would have spent the rest of the day in much more worthwhile reflection.

So if you're going to spend time at this time of the year in reflection, make sure you make it worthwhile, and don't umm and ahh about whether you should or whether you've got time or whatever, just do it.

Anyway, that's a bit of a ramble, just a warm up to my real post really. Maybe. Probably. Prossibly. Possibly.

What's been happening lately? Not all that much really. I'm back at uni, studying ArtsLaw, with German and Medieval History for my Arts subjects. I'm loving them. For Law I'm studying Contracts and Torts (if only it was that delicious). They're kinda interesting, very applicable to everyday life, which is a nice difference from my arts subjects.

I'm currently avoiding doing my contracts summaries, which involve lots of highlighting and A3 paper. I'm so easily distracted today. Georgie (my cat) has been a great distracter all day... Later I'll go to Tenebrae, a service which celebrates the actual crucifixion of Christ, with lots of drama and candles and drums.

I've booked my flights to England, hoorah! I'll be there for Greenbelt too, which I'm pretty pumped about! I keep talking to Emma (future sister in law) on msn, which is great. She's very excited about us being there for Greenbelt too. Then I'll be off to Austria for a few days, which will be fantabulastic I reckon, looking for nice cheap flights there at the mo...

Well I'm hungry right now, need to go find some food.

Watched Bruce Almighty last night. I've seen it before, but I really like it. It's not perfect, but has some cool points to think about. Such as, what would happen if God gave us everything we 'want' ("who really knows what they want?")...

Tuesday 20 March 2007

Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz. Go see it. Haven't laughed at hard at a movie for quite a while! Cop spoof that really does the spoof thing well. Had some beautiful little touches. For the same people as Shaun of the Dead.



Pan's Labyrinth. Also fantastic. Mexican fairy tale for adults. Odd ending, but sadly happy. Quite violent, but excellent effects and unusual story. It's use of the grim Spanish Civil War reality intertwined with Ofelia's dangerous involvement in the mystical Pan's Labyrinth, is intriguing, as is the juxtaposition of the two stories.

Tuesday 13 March 2007

RECALL NOTICE

The Maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart.

This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units.

This defect has been technically termed Subsequential Internal Non -Morality," or more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed.

Some other symptoms include:

1. Loss of direction
2. Foul vocal emissions
3. Amnesia of origin
4. Lack of peace and joy
5. Selfish or violent behavior
6. Depression or confusion in the mental Component
7. Fearfulness
8. Idolatry
9. Rebellion


The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory-authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this SIN defect. The Repair Technician, Jesus, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required.

The number to call for repair in all areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R.

Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the REPENTANCE procedure. Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus, into the heart component.

No matter how big or small the SIN defect is, Jesus will replace it with:

1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self control

Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E. (Believers' Instructions Before Leaving Earth) for further details on the use of these fixes.

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded.

DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that facility.

Thank you for your attention!

GOD

Please assist where possible by notifying others of this important recall notice, and you may contact the Father any time by "kneemail".

Tuesday 6 March 2007

Kraftwerk - Hokey Kokey

Foreign Police Sirens

Bill Bailey examines Cockney Music

Bill Bailey's Love Song

I've gone on a YouTube Bill Bailey hunt in case you hadn't notice... Just to share the joy...


Chaucer Pubbe Gagge

Saturday 3 March 2007

I really must be a young Christian...

I know of four weddings within the next 12 months... In order of occurance

My brother, yep fine... He's 30ish, so ancient by comparison to the others

A friend of a friend... Well that's considered to be a controversial marriage, with him a 22 year oldish christian, her a 20 year old explorer of christianity, dating only 1 month (but known each other far longer I think...) This is one I don't have a particular opinion on, but it's still a young christian marriage...

Two of my good friends, who announced it tonight. This is one we've seen coming for a long time, and it's FANTASTIC, but they're both only 20, with her 2 months younger than me. These guys are the first of my close group of friends to get married, so I'm starting to feel old...

Then another two of my friends. I don't know him all that well, but she's a good friend, also younger than me.

It's one of those things that people laugh about, one of the truths about Christians, that we often get married young, but wow has this month really proven it right... Hehe

Congratulations to all though! Yay!

Wednesday 28 February 2007

Thursday 22 February 2007

The Truman Show (spoilers)

Watched The Truman Show today. I've seen it before, and I know it was the coolest most thought provoking film like evA about 5 years ago, but I'm 5 years behind, and in light of several conversations I've had over the past few days, it got me really thinking.

The Truman Show, for those who haven't seen it and haven't clicked on the link, is about a guy (Truman) who's the unknowing star of the ultimate Big Brother show. He was born on live television, and has lived in a world created solely for watching him live out his life since then. It is all directed by Christof, down to the consoling lines spoken by Truman's 'best friend' when Truman is suspecting that there's more to life than he's been led to believe. Truman starts to fight this pretend world, wanting to explore outside it's walls and see more of the world.

Truman's struggle reminds me so much of the fight I see some people facing when they start to wonder if there's a God. When they believe, there are just as many obstructions as Truman faces when he wants to do something that isn't acceptable to the others living in and 'controlling' his life.

Truman starts to really wonder about the truth of his life in Seahaven when little things strike him as a little strange - a light falling from the sky explained as a plane shedding equipment midair, an encounter with a man who looks like his dead father, who gets whisked away. Explanations for every strange event are found in the newspaper the next day. All these, plus an episode from his school years, start to make him wonder and question what's going on. But the more he questions, the more obstructions he meets as Christof tries to prevent him living his own chosen life. Within one day he discovers there are no flights to Fiji available, the bus to Chicago breaks down, and when he takes dramatic action to drive out, he is stopped by a convenient nucular leak that has forced roadblocks and an evacuation zone to be set up, preventing him escape via the road. And yet he keeps trying.

We see the people barracking for Truman at the Truman Bar, in the bath, the carpark, hugging pillows with Truman's face on them, in Japan, learning English from the show. We see Laura, the girl who 'they' didn't want talking to him, and got taken off the show for doing so, leaving an indelible memory with Truman. And these are the people who rejoice when Truman steps out of the set, after refusing to bow to Christof's pressure and give in to the fear of leaving the safety of Seahaven.

Truman faces death to find the truth, as Christof uses increasingly extreme methods to try and force Truman to turn around back to the 'normal' life. But he keeps going, and this is the message I want all you people who are looking at life, wondering what it's all about, whether there's a God, whether he's worth following to take from this post.

God can't force us to do anything, that's one of the beauties of him, he gives us free choice to do what we like. Of course there's a way he'd like us to do things, and he makes sure there's always opportunities to do it his way, but you can take a different road if you wish, although where you'll end up is not the best destination for the rest of eternity. As in The Truman Show, there are always obstructions, some major, some minor, but you'll get through if you believe in the end goal.

The Truman Show reminds me a little of the book of Job (about the guy who's faith is rigorously tested by the devil) and also the Lost Son (guy gets early inheritance from dad, goes spends it all on sex drugs and rock n roll, then returns home crawling and dad welcomes him and throws a massive party). Those of us who believe in God, Jesus, Father, whatever you want to call him, are members of that party. We are barracking for you, like the audience of the Truman Show, and when you choose to push away the 'normal' life - the life of a non-christian, we throw a massive party, as does God (Jesus made wine - of course God likes a party!).

I just want to encourage anyone who reads this to keep searching, keep testing the boundaries of what you believe. You don't have to believe in Him, but He believes in you.

I'll be praying for you.

May you let God guide your steps, and may you see the work he does in your life.

God bless,
Imo
Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to seperate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:39

Sunday 18 February 2007

Stinking hot...

Today it's rather warm... By our standards especially, where mid-20s aare considered warm enough! So far it's gotten to 35°C, but there is no respite, because our houses often warm up to the same temperature as outside, and a lot of us don't have airconditioning. But we just sit it out, and enjoy frozen blueberries... Well that's our house at least!

But the weather has been hot for the last couple of days, with a cooler front expected tomorrow. On Friday we had spectacular storms, with thunder and lightening that lasted for several hours. It was such typical Tasmanian weather - one minute the skies were bright blue, and the sun roasting everything alive, and the next it was raining and thundering and flashing. I lay in the hammock under the house for a while, watching the lightening and the rain, marvelling at the wonders of the weather. And it was spectacular from under there, until the wind started to blow the rain straight onto me... It was still spectacular, but better to watch from inside...! It was completely dark by about 8pm, when the sun was meant to set at 8:20, which gave an odd sense of almost jetlag.

Well I've been kinda flat out with work, doing Eisteddfod stuff, and some other stuff that got passed on to me to do by my mum. It's all money, but O-Week starts tomorrow, so only a week till uni. Hoping this week will be really nice and relaxing, planning to catch up with a few people and stuff, so shoudl be good!

Been busily planning my trip to England for my brother's wedding (have I ever mentioned that my brother's getting married? Well he is! To Emma, who we met last year at easter when she come to visit! She's English, is a teacher, and seems really nice!) I'm planning to fly to London via Vienna, and return the same way, then I can have a few days stopover in Vienna and see all my Austrian friends. I'm SOOOOO looking forward to it all! Emma's planning to show us all around the area where they live, and I'll visit the sister of a friend who's working for a year at a school, about 50 minutes drive from Emma and Alex! Yayayayayay!!

Talk about timing too! When I'm in Austria, a friend from there (who's studying in Egypt) will also be home! We're planning to organise everyone to be in the one place at the same time so we can have a big catch up!

Finally, Heth got home today, after 2 and a half months of adventures in New Zealand and Costa Rica! It was great to go out to the airport to welcome her home! WELCOME HETH!!! Hooray! She's back safe and sound!!

Sunday 21 January 2007

I love the rain!!!!

Isn't rain jsut the coolest thing in the whole wide world? I mean, weather in general is amazing, and i think it is in the weather that God's work is the clearest!! But weather like today's, is just mind-blowing.... This morning i was lying in bed, peering out a tiny gap of curtain, wondering why i could see blue skies when it's supposed to be really rainy today. But i got up, got dressed, sat in the sun for a while and read my book. Suddenly the sun went behind a cloud, and I looked up at the Mountain. There was this enormous grey cloud taking over the mountain, sweeping down. The temperature suddenly dropped, and I felt like I was in some kind of a horror movie when everything suddenly becomes colder as the menacing yeti steps into the picture. Went and changed into trousers, and watched as the skies turned grey, and the Bureau of Meteorology showed that the temperature that it feels like had dropped by 10°C in about 30 minutes. Then came the rain. It was pouring down - sounded and looked like hail, but it was just MASSIVE drops. Well, our house had a memory lapse, and forgot that rain's supposed to be on the outside and not the inside. Mum and i raced for towels and water waterfalled down the windows (on one it was on the outside, very pretty, on the other however it was on the inside)..... Silly blocked gutters...! Then the chimmney started peeing, but we didn't realised until there was a puddle on the floor... Crazy Crazy!!! Hobart got 30mm of rain in about an hour and a half....


Well we don't usually have a lake in our garden...!

I love the sound of the rain drumming on a tin roof, like the ones we have, and also on the alsanite roof of the house next door. Beautiful sound. Everytime it slowed, I would get tense, and think 'no, please, keep going and move up into the midlands!!!' But everything must come to an end, even beautiful things like soaking rain, and it did. We looked outside and under the house were a few lakes.... Mum got excited, grabbed the hoe and started to make channels...
Mum contemplates the puddle under the washing line.... (The photo doesn't want to go the proper way, so you'll just have to tilt the head!!)


I can't remember ever having lakes under our house before, Mum says she can remember it happening maybe twice before.....

But I just love the rain so much!!!!!! And it's still going, but easier now, and it's really really misty...... YAY!!!!!! RAIN!

Sorry, I'm just a bit excitable about it!

I got Ugg Boots a couple of days ago, which is fantastic - never had them before, so i keep on walking around the house in them thinking how lovely they are - two tone purple!!!

And I got bluetooth working between my computer and my phone which is very useful, and also got iSync working for my phone (iSync is a thing on macs that means you can have the same address book and calendar on your phone and computer). It's not supposed to support the Nokia 6233, but I found a useful thing on the apple discussion site on how to add an unsupported model in. I love people who work out that stuff and then tell people like me who can follow instructions but not work them out!!!

Wednesday 17 January 2007

Back to Reality

Camps have been and gone and now I'm back to the norms of life in a world not overrun by 30-odd kids in a confined space...

The first camp I was on was Mayfield, where I was part of a leadership team, looking after 19 kids. It was terribly dry up there, with countless dead sheep seen, no bathing hole (so no bath for a week) and the threat of a total fire ban hanging over our heads. We knew the river would have plenty of water - being tidal and salt water from the sea, but there were some worries about drinking water.

We were, however, so blessed on this camp, with God answering all our prayers about the weather, right down to the rain that meant we could have our bondfire on the last night (otherwise it was too dry to have a fire, and the rain posed no problem at all - we kept a positive 'Hooray! Rain! The farmers need it' attitude and the kids picked that up too). The theme of the camp was 007 (being 2007) so we had lots of bonding jokes, and the bondfire and James Bond visited every day to show his adventures as a secret agent in Heaven. The campers were fantastic, the leadership team was amazing (a lot of us had been campers on Huon togehter, so it was just like being back there, but with responsibility!) and all in all it was my favourite Mayfield so far.

After driving home from that, via Scorchers in Orford for a caffine refill, I arrived at 6ish to an empty house (which meant I didn't have to worry about suffocating people with my smelliness), chucked my clothes in the washing machine, jumped in the shower for the best shower ever, and pysched myself up for the next camp, to which I was supposed to go that night. But the washing took a while to do, and by the time mum and dad arrived home, I'd made up my mind to just go down the next day...

The next day I headed off to Conningham for Waves. This is a far more relaxed camp than Mayfield - for starters we live in a building, not tents, and I was looking forward to a slightly easier camp. I had a few concerns over the inexperienced leadership team (and smaller team) but knew God would take care of it.

Well I was looking forward to a more relaxed camp, but there is no way I got it. The campers arrived, and for the first couple of hours I was thinking 'this is going to be the longest week of my life' - they all seemed to be off the show. Sent off a couple of 'AHHHHH PSYCHO CAMPERS! PRAY YOUR SOCKS OFF' messages, and from the next day things started to calm down, as they got used to it all. I was one of the first aid officers, and we had so many injuries - usually only little things - little cuts, mozzie bites etc, but I certainly got good at aiming the stingose and antiseptic sprays.... Waves was quite emotionally draining, with so many injuries, and a few rowdy campers who we had to constantly watch. It was still great, with most of the kids stating the middle day, when we went sailing, as their favourite thing. We all had a lot of fun, and although there was a terrible day for the leaders, when just everything seemed to go wrong, the campers didn't seem to notice, and they all had a great time.

One of my highlights was the fact that every single one of the 31 kids, aged 11-14ish really loved watching a 1985 classic movie, Back to the Future. It's one of myt favourite movies, and I was so happy when i didn't hear a single bad comment about it from the campers after we watched it on a rainy night. They were begging to watch the 2nd and 3rd even!!!

So that was camps.... I got home last night, slept for 11 hours, and now I'm awake and with it (unlike yesterday, when i was running on determination not to fall asleep).. I'm looking forward to next years camps already (sad, but they are possibly my year's highlight - I love them so much!) and hope to see the campers from this years grow with God heaps over the coming year. There are some potentially fantastic leaders out there, and I just pray they will stay strong, and keep asking questions and finding out about where they are headed.

God bless,
Imo