2. The Goodbye

About 6 hours after we watch Leights and Kitty drive off into the rest of their lives, I said goodbye to our matrics for 2006. They ran their final Senior Youth and did an awesome job. I love them, and they are my friends, as much as a 12 year age gap will allow. It was hard for me to say goodbye to the end of an era, and as if to punctuate the moment, we had a fierce, but short, summer thunder storm.

Rain pelted down on the hot cement just after dusk and in a matter of seconds, that beautiful smell of hissing rain topped off the most emotional time of my year. At the end of Novemember I always say goodbye. But this time the summer rain took me back to 1996 when I said goodbye to my first ever biblstudy, as the grade 9's moved up to Senior High back at Christ Church. It rained then too, same sound, same smell, and although it reminded me of sad goodbyes, it also was kind of poetic.

(plus Andy baby)

(plus Nadine, Lisa, Lucy)

Part 1: The Wedding

I've had a real emotional weekend - all good, emotional neverthteless.

Part 1: The Wedding

Leights and Kitty - you guys are beautifully awesome and rejoicing just bubbles over when I think of Saturday. For those of you who weren't there - here are some of the moments. As we look at these shots, you are living it up on honeymoon. You need to know that we are all desperately jealous!





Sherbit!

Scott

PS: If lights is my brother in law - then kirsty and I are . . . . [a little help?!]

Steve sent me an underwater shot of our shark dive (see a few post back). It's taken with one of those disposable jobbies in a plastic case.
I love this photo, it's eerie, spooky and kind of scary. It looks like a great shot from a shark horror movie (not the clean cut type of flicks like Deep Blue Sea).
For instance; Is that blood on the sharks lips? Is that a piece of person on the end of the rope?
(The answer is no and no of course) but can you see where I'm coming from?!
Thanks steve

Scott

Stuff you didn't know Part 3

Cook had returned to Hawaii but this time he wasn't treated like god, he was recieved as one would welcome back a pet who wasn't house trainned. The locals began some serious theft and Cook, determined to keep the upper hand, went ashore to hold the chief to ransom until all the property had been returned. This tactic had worked well on other pacific islands, but this time didn't work out quite as he had hoped. They were chased back to the beach by an angry mob. The best way to hear the end of the story is to listen to it thru the journals of the men who were there (as described by Tony Horwitz).

"Phillips had lost sight of Cook, but the men aboard the launch saw the captain standing with his arm outstretched, apparently beckoning for the boats to come closer. But the launches commander either misunderstood the gesture or chose to ignore it, and ordered his men to row farther out.

Cook struggled to the shoreline: a ledge of lava, covered in shallow water. He was about 10 yards from the saftey of the other launch, if only he could swim (which he couldn't).

'Captain Cook was now the only man on the rock,' Samwell wrote. The captain stepped out into shallow water, one hand sheilding the back of his head from stones, the other clutching his musket. The Hawaiians seemed hesitant to pursue him.

"An indian came running behind him, stopping once or twice as he advanced, as if he was afraid, "Samwell wrote, "then taking Cook unaware he sprung to him, and then knocked him on the back of his head with a large club."

Cook staggered, fell to one knee, tried to rise. Another man rushed up and stabbed the captain between the shoulder blades with an iron dagger. Cook toppled into knee deep water and the crowd fell on him with a frenzied group assult.

"They now kept him underwater, one man sat on his shoulders and beat his head with a stone while others beat him with clubs and stones, Samwell wrote. Then they hauled Cooks body onto the rocks and continued the stabbings and beatings. "As soon as one had stabbed him another would take the instrument out of his body and give him another stab."

Captain Cook died on the lava shelf just after 8am.

Seaman Gilbert wrote; "All our hopes centered on him, our loss become irrepairable." Samwell added that the men returned to the boats, "crying out with tears in their eyes that they had lost their father."

This stuff makes me all emotional.
If you're an Australian this is compulsory reading, if your not, you'll wish you were.

Scott

Stuff you didn't know about Cook - Part 2

In some ways, Australia is lucky that it doesn’t belong to the Dutch or the French.

Captain Cook claiming it for the King of England was almost a complete fluke.

He and his crew had just finished some astronomical measurements in the Pacific and had decided it was about time to head home. Rather than taking the most direct route, Cook decided to cut across previously uncharted southern waters. This passage home was kind of out of obligation because, once at sea, he had opened sealed papers which ordered him to also try and discover the mysterious southern continent.

(Up until this point, the great south land had not recieved a great rap. The Dutch had bumped into the coast of Australia in the 16th cent. but passed quickly on commenting; “We could not find one fruitful tree or anything that could be of use to mankind.” William Dampier, an English privateer who visited the northwest of Australia in 1688 also added, “The inhabitants of this country are the most miserable people in the world.”)

Nevertheless, Cook’s probing loop brought him right into the Eastern coast of Australia, which he followed and charted all the way up to the tip of far north Queensland. He wasn’t looking for Australia; he just wanted to get home. If he had been a less adventurous soul, it would have been left up to someone else to bump into the great south land. But as it turns out he charted most of the East coast and as a result gave the big boys back home an ‘out of sight – out of mind’ option for the relocatation of it’s overcrowded prisons 7 years later.

So why has Cook been greeted with the excitement that meets a dry piece of toast?

Tony Horwitz (the author) reckons it’s because Cook wasn’t bad enough,

“Ned Kelly was eventually hanged, the Eureka Stockade fell after a 15 min battle, and the ‘jolly swagman’ drowned himself. But Australians love losers, so long as they lose with panache against overwhelming odds, or as martyrs to British authority. The true national holiday wasn’t Australia Day; it was Anzac Day, commemorating the doomed, British ordered assault by Australian troops at Gallipoli in 19156. James cook – a winner, faithful servant of his majesty, a wigged pom without much flair or humour – had little hope of entering Australia’s pantheon of antiheroes”. P148

One more Cook insight to go - his brutal death and dismemberment in Hawaii.

Scott

Things you didn't know Part 1

James Cooper is a good man. He always remembers stuff and even sends me a birthday pressie all the way over to deepest darkest Africa. He recently sent me a biography of another great man who shares his initals - Captin James Cook.

If you are an Australian, you know Cook was an Englishman who sailed into Botany Bay in 1788 and claimed the place for the British. Seven years later, they started shipping the convicts our way. He was the compulsory start for year 7 history and let's be honest, it was about as inspiring as school assembly.

If you're not an Austrlaian, you would be lucky to even know this much.

But friends; we have been mislead! Misinformed! This book is great, and Captin James Cook is a pretty amazing guy. In honour of the man (and as a thanks to Jimmy Cooper) I'm going to pop up a fact or two about Cook over the next week or so. Do yourself a favour and pop in.

Stuff about Captin Cook you Didn't Know Part 1:
James Cook charted and named more of the world than any other navigator in history!

Over his 3 journeys of discovery, Cook sailed from the Antarctic to the Arctic, from Tasmania to Soth America, from North America to Siberia and the Pacific Islands.

All in all he clocked up 200,000 miles, roughly equivilent to circling the equator 8 times or travelling from the earth to the moon.

If it wasn't for the fact that he saved me from growing up in a dreary mining town in England, you wouldn't say that Cook sticking the Union Jack in the sand at Botany Bay even rates that high on his list of all time acheivements.

But stay tuned . . . there's more

Scott

Dum da . . . . dum da . . . .

As I slipped on the wettie, and lowered myself into the chilly waters of Gansbaai the thought, "I could be eaten", never crossed my mind. I looked at Steve, who was grinning like a madman, and said something forgettable - to which he replied, "This is SO cool!!"

Myth number one about shark cage diving. It's scary. It's not.

It is thrilling, amazing, awesome but not scary. The sharks aren't aggressive, they don't want to kill you. They are curious.

The other element no one tells you about is that when you are told to go underwater you enter a world of silence. Not a sound. You see this huge beast swim past the cage (or ram into it, or stick its nose in and bite it - yes that happened to us too) but it is mute - quite a bizzare experience.

Then of course there was Jeff. The 15 year olf British kid who from the second he stepped off the jetty got sick. I saw him hurl overboard into the path of a circling shark. I think if I had asked Jeff, he would have been more than happy for me to tip him off the side. Poor kid.

But by ther end of the day, I was starting to feel a little queezy myself. It probably wasn't helped by the chuming. There were 2 'crewman' on board whose sole responcibility was to fill a big bucket with fish parts, fill it with sea water and then stomp in it until it became a watery soup of shark fragerance. Then they would slop it over board. For 4 hours. After a while when you went under to view the sharks you would see the fish bits float past your mask and no doubt into your nose, mouth and ears. Another hidden gem of shark diving.
(For those of you shaking your heads, apparently chuming does not lure sharks into the beach to eat people as it has been rumoured. So there.)

But, it was unreal. Thanks to Steve for making it happen. Thanks to God for making such awesome beasties. And thanks to Hayley for sending me off with a smile!

Read it and be at peace

Here is a blast from the past my brother posted on his blog.

Read his post and be at peace.

The irony is that I finally used my b'day money and just went and brought some new clothes.
Now I feel like I've let the side down! :)

Scott

(BTW; that is me at the back and Craig in the front. I'm the one with the 'news readers hair piece' loo9k. Oh, hang on, that doesn't really help does it?)

No TV

We've done it.

We've made a stand.

No TV after 7pm at night.

For the next week. (I've long ago learnt my lesson about unrealistic goals).

Which for me is basically no TV (Hayley sometimes slips in a Dr Phil at lunch if she can).
Last night, as Hayley wrote a talk, I spoke to a friend back from OS and then read lots of my book. But after that I couldn't get to sleep.

Still with 1 night down, 6 to go, I'm feeling good.

But (for all you fans out there) I am haunted by the words of Homer . . .

"No TV and no beer make Homer go mad!"
















Good thing I haven't given up beer.

Scott

He's back

OK, CD review time.

Reviewers always seem to me like one of the faceless masses who just couldn't make it themselves, so I'm going to try and not be that guy. I'm doing this shout out cause I love The Boss.

Devils and Dust is pretty good. It grows on you. Some 'one man one guitar' stuff and some band numbers too.

Highlights and Low lights . . . .

Highlights:

• His story telling is alive and well. You will become part of tales of a bareknuckle boxer reflecting on his life, an uncomfortably graphic story of a visit to a prostitue (and how immensly unsatisfying it was) and even the story of Jesus walking up to the cross and the words he used to comfort his mother. Nice and diverse.

• No anthems, but the haunting sound of Bruce comes through loud and clear

• I got the double CD which includes a DVD

Lowlights

• The best story telling isn't always paired with the best musical tracks.

• He is becomiong less and less articulate, to the point that even a seasoned Bruce fan will have trouble working out what the heck he is singing about without the words

• You will have heard some of these tunes before - some of them sound suspiciously re-hashed from previous stuff.

But hey, I'll buy every CD he makes, cause you can't argue with the Boss.

Scott

I don't have much to say at the moment but I thought I would share this:

I just had an afternoon snack of some chilled dates from Libya.

So there.

Scott

Three posts in 3 days.

I must be trying to avoid something. Proctastination is a great inspiration.

Don't skipt the last 2 posts if you just arrived - I enjoyed them both. But also don't miss out on checking out this link

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/ultimate+showdown/#start

Ever wondered what would happen if all the superheroes fought each other in the ultimate show down?

Well, now you know.

Scott

The greatest adventure story ever told

It's a big call for the title of a book, "The greatest adventure story ever told", and I must admit, I was skeptical. But if you've got some spare cash, you'd be hard pushed for a more mind bending adventure. It might be a boy thing, but I'm pretty sure this will bake your noodle either way.

Shackelton started off to cross the Antartic - but before he even landed, his boat (The Endurance) got caught in an ice flow and over a period of a week or 2 the most modern and expensive ice going vessel of 1914 was crushed into pieces no bigger than your dining room table.

Thus began a 2 year (that's right, 2 year!) trek of survival. They spend most of it camped out on an ice pack drifting slowely towards a deserted island (no palm trees and coconuts here though - just a frozen lump of rock) from where they could launch their row boats for the 650 mile journey across the worst sea in the world to another lump of rock where there was a whaling station.

For 2 years they ate penguin and seal blubber, were almost never dry, spent 3 months in south pole winter (24 hrs of darkness) all got frostbite, had to kill and eat their sleigh dogs . . . the list goes on. But instead of re writing the book here, I'll let you go read it yourself.

It taught me 2 things.

1. The burden of command. For those of us who have people under their charge it can be a weighty load to bear. Most of us aren't trying to keep 27 others alive on an iceberg, but to be a leader is like being a parent, you worry that your best might not be good enough.

2. You can always push harder, go further, last longer. I now believe that we usually fail because we give up, not because all is lost.

"Success is never final, failure is never fatal. Courage is what counts.”
Churchill

Wortelgat 2006

Just got back from another great camp. It's our fav. spot with some of my fav. kids.
It is very photogenic, esp when it comes to QT's. Also had lots of first timers on camp who all clicked really well. We are tired but thanking God for another great weekend.

The only trouble was the bus. We got the campsite late, bouncing down a dirt road in the country. We went down the wrong path, ended up in a neighbours farm, and when we tried to reverse out got bogged! So at 9:15pm we unpacked the puss, got cars to shuttle the luggage, and Leights lead the kids on a night hike to the cape site. Then a tractor came and pulled the bus out. We ate dinner at 10pm and then all crashed.

Then on the way home on sunday, our bus had to stop 5 times becuase it was getting air in the fuel line. The bus driver 'knew' how to fix it, but is repair work was a bit scarey (he threw out one of the fuel filters!) We made it home an hour and a half late.

But ingoring the buses, or maybe because of them, it was a pretty memorable time.

Pray for me as I do it all again this coming weekend with the juniors . . . .

Scott

For a top thought on something serious, check out Monday the 18th on my brothers blog.

http://www.tubemantravels.blogspot.com/

Just go and spend the cash

Two nights ago I found a recipe for home made humus.

I love humus and it was a easy recipe so I thought I would give it a shot.

It looked like the real deal but . . . it tasted like dog food.
No really, if you don't respect the chick pea it becomes evil.

Bad humus

Scott

Legend!

On Sunday, my brother from another mother, ran his first full marathon (42km!)

This is a picture of him finishing whith his 'coach' (and soon to be father in law) the enegmatic Trevor. Coming in in just over 4 hours is a awesome feat (see the clock) and brother, you have spured me on to bigger and better things . . .


Scott

Hell in 6 hours

I had to get my car new second hand registered. Pretty simple right?

Yup.

I left home positive and up beat. I was in control, or so I thought. 6 hours and 14 min later I arrived back home again - mission comlete. But it took me 6 hours and 14 min to finally hold my weary sword arm high and let out the loud 'yarp' of victory.

Here are a few flashbacks to my 'adventure'

• Discovering that the traffic department don't accept passports as legit ID. Airports do, banks do, police do, but not the high and mighty traffic dept.

• Needing to pick up a form to take somehwere else, only to discover that need to fill out a preemptive form so that they can give me the actual form I really need. And to do this preemptive form, I need 2 passport photo's. Which I didn't have.

• Trying to withdraw R150 from the ATM only to hit the wrong button and withdraw R1000

• Driving out to some crazy place a long way from home and missing the turn off on the freeway and then get stuck in construction traffic as I'm heading off in the wrong direction.

That was my day. It was hard. It was painful. But now I have my new car in my name. But it wasn't easy. Damm, it wasn't easy.

Scott

The 'A' word

Last night was bible study and we gave Eph 5 a shot. Paul doesn't give you much room to move in the first 21 verses so there was not too much room to hide.

But we did end with a discussion by way of application with a word or two about accountability. Here are some of our thoughts, we were just flying a kite, but see what you think.

I think that in our Christian circles the word 'accountability' has gone the way of 'rebuke'. It has been overused and abused and no one really knows what it means anymore or even if they like what they think it might mean.

In our inevitable way, we have taken something very relationally driven and jammed it into a structure. In doing so we might have broken it. We realised that it is very hard to manufacture 'accountability' if it doesn't grow naturally out of friendship. You would hope that your group of friends is a soft place to land, and that in that kind of place, people can keep you walking the path with the kind of checks and balances that friends have.

So we decided not to pair up with accountability partners, but instead, work a little harder on the firednships in our Bible study and get them to 'do the work' that we have become so used to farming out to 'proffessional accoutnability friends'.

What sort of characteristics will these friendships have to make this work?

Well, we thought that we need to be gentle, but not soft with each other.
Compassionate, but not careless.

We also thought that rather than being a 'Mr Fix it' for each other, we should be more like guide dogs. Walking the road hand in hand. (Yes, know dog's don't have hands.)

Those are some of our thoughts from last night.

Got any more to add?

Scott

Ninja's

Hey, you can't blame a guy for trying.


I'd cough up and give him points for creativety



Scott