Friday, August 29, 2008

Tragic

I was so sad to hear about the death of Mark Priestley. Last night, I came off the netball court and Duncan told me that he'd overheard two girls talking about it.

It's one of those things you just don't think will happen. I am a fan of All Saints and first saw Mark on stage in Perth in Black Swan's production of Cosi in 2000. I went to uni with his ex-girlfriend's sister.

I guess what you see about a person on screen doesn't reflect their real life. We should already know that but I often believed he really was his character, Dan Goldman. For someone to feel that suicide is their only option is a terrible tragedy and waste.

My prayers go out to Mark's family, friends and castmates.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Those Poms!

I really enjoyed the Olympics. Too bad the Poms are now rubbing in the fact that they got more gold medals than us! I saw this on the net...the cheek!












The rest of the story is here.

If there's one mob I hate losing to (after the Dorkers of course) it's the Poms....and the Yanks.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

What a Friend We Have in Jesus by Joseph M. Scriven

Another new series.......

We sing this regularly at my church and it's one of the songs that I actually find relevant, helpful and very encouraging.

O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry,
everything to God in prayer.

Yesterday I was trying to finish chapter 27 of my novel and I saving my work as I went along when Word suddenly had a spak attack. It started doing something weird and I couldn't stop it. Then Word shut down completely and when I checked my USB, the book was gone, entirely deleted! As a writer, this is one of my worst fears. I have several copies but hadn't had a chance to update them yet.

To say the least, I panicked and couldn't stop the tears. That was years of work gone in an instant. I have a private blog where I upload each completed chapter so I could get most of it back but this chapter was surely gone. It was the equivalent of losing an assignment or a mostly completed assignment. To those of you who have been students, I'm sure some of you know how that feels.

I tried to find a fix for it on the net but was unsuccessful. Then Duncan came home and I was trying to stay calm when he rang his cousin who is a computer dude. Eventually we managed to resurrect the book through finding it in the temporary files where it had been saved under a weird file name.

I thought the most terrible thing would be to lose my book but as I sat and pondered later, the most terrible thing was that I did not to turn to God first in my time of need. In fact, I did not turn to God at all, I turned to every resource but him and it was like he didn't even register on my radar. I told him I was so sorry and later I found myself singing that hymn. It reminded me that no problem is too big or small to take to God and while that doesn't mean I have to sit on my butt and wait for a miracle, I had forfeited the peace that could have been mine knowing that he had everything under control.

Friday, August 22, 2008

The Inner Circle

This is the first post in my new series on Friendships.

I decided to do this series as the art of making friends and keeping them is something I struggle with and I suspect many of us do too. When you're a child making friends seems easy. You simply go up to a fellow kid in the playground and ask them to play and bingo...you're friends. When you're an adult, it's not so easy. Time is one issue. We get so bogged down with errands, hobbies, family, church etc that often we don't have time to pursue meaningful friendships or deepen existing ones. We might say that we have 'friends from work' but really I've found as soon as I leave that workplace, the 'friendship' dies as well.

Which is the question I want to raise in this post....what is a friend?

Many times I've found myself saying, "I have a friend who...." then I've stopped myself and thought hang on, are they really a friend? Or are they merely an acquaintance?

When I was in Year 10 at school, we were looking at the issue of friendships and relationships in Health class and were given an exercise sheet containing three circles one inside the other. On this sheet, we were put many of our friends into categories. The circle on the outside was to contain acquaintances. The middle one, friends or good friends and the inner circle was to contain the names of our closest friends.

I struggled with placing some people in a circle. Sometimes I seemed closer to certain friends than others. Where was that same person going to place me? What if I placed them in my closest friends circle and they listed me as a mere acquaintance? I know of a few lopsided friendships like that. One person sees another as their close friend and would probably have them in their bridal party whereas the other sees the first person as more of an acquaintance and may not even invite them to their wedding. Ok, I know all friendships are not this lopsided but sometimes our 'friends' do perceive us and the importance of the friendship differently to what we do.

Now I don't want to get technical and picky here. We all have a fair idea of who our close friends are but I think our definitions of close friends, friends and acquaintances do differ quite a bit from each other. Here are my definitions and what I consider to be a close friend.

Close friend: My idea of a close friend (or best friend for some people) is someone who I can share important and personal things with. They are someone who I'm either in contact with regularly or if not, I can meet up with them months later and it's like we've never been apart.

Friend: To me, a friend is someone I have a relationship with based on our own terms. That is, it's someone I would see individually and not just in a group. I have to have some personal contact with this person and the friendship doesn't die simply because one of us moves away etc. We see the relationship as important enough to maintain despite changes in our personal circumstances. I still have meaningful discussions with friends although maybe not as deep as with close friends.

Acquaintance: Separating friends from acquaintances is a hard one for me. In the past, I've always seen people from church or work as friends but maybe we're just acquaintances. This group includes people that we may see regularly but do not have much of a personal relationship with or do not know very well. We tend to see them as part of a group or through other friends but never individually. Our relationship is usually based around an organisation or activity and since the relationship was only surface level, it usually dies when the activity ceases.

I know not everyone will agree with my interpretation and that's fine. Nor can we always categorise the people in our lives easily. Sometimes the level of closeness in a relationship fluctuates and I have quite a few people in my life who sit on the cusp of close friend/friend. One general observation I've made is that guys tend to have wider friendship circles than girls. At school, the guys tended to be friends with most of the other guys whereas the girls were more cliquey, had a distinct circle of friends and tended to be more exclusive.

Now it's over to you. Do you have lots and lots of friends or do you have a more tight-knit inner circle of close friends? When do you count someone as a close/best friend? Have you had the same close friends for years or do your friendships tend to change from year to year?

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Devonport and Surrounding Areas

We stayed for a night at a bed and breakfast in Shearwater (near Devonport) which was lovely. Such hospitable people and beautiful rooms. We would have loved to have stayed for longer. The next day was spent travelling around the surrounding areas before heading to Launceston.




Fake painted cows outside the cheese factory.























Honey place. We couldn't bring any back because of the quarantine laws :(












Lighthouse near Devonport.




































North coast.....looking over the sea to Victoria.







Devonport in the distance.





Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Job Update

I didn't end up getting that admin manager job. They said they were impressed with my interview but ended up going for someone with more office experience. Oh well...at least I have a job that I enjoy.

Now I've applied for a position with the Shire as a customer services officer, which will include some library work. I saw the ad last week and decided to see how I go.

Stay tuned.....

Monday, August 18, 2008

Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake

On our way from Strahan to Shearwater (near Devonport), we stopped at Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake. This national park is expensive to get into - it costs 20 odd dollars. There was so much fog we couldn't actually see the mountain itself which was disappointing but there was the most snow either of us had seen in our lives.



Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Big 300

This is my 300th post - well done me! To celebrate, I've decided to take you all on a walk down memory lane and revisit the most heavily commented on posts in the Sedshed's history. I wanted to do a Top 10 but it ended up being a Top 11 due to a tie between some posts. Sure, I may be a small fry in the blogosphere and many of these comments may have come from me but it was fun to reminisce. Enjoy!

Calling All Theoblogians #4 21 comments
The one where I asked about the Trinity. Recently some other people discovered this two-month-old post and the comments have started again.

Lesson 2 from Sarah's School of Dating 18 comments
The one where I created a scenario where a couple in a church wanted to start dating but another girl in the church wanted the same man! There seems to be an unwritten rule among women that you can't date your friend's love interest. I took absolutely no notice of that in this post!

Technical Help Needed 17 comments
The one where the Blogger ID photos vanished from the comments and the blogger's name was replaced with 'anonymous'......I had no idea what was going on.

Invitation Politics 13 comments
The one where I asked if you should invite people you don't really like to your special occasion in order to heal rifts. This was quite a controversial one with many different opinions.

Frustrations for Young Bloggers 12 comments
The one where I shared that Duncan and I were becoming disillusioned that we had more lurkers than commenters on our blogs. It seems to be an all too familiar problem for many bloggers out there.

Will You Volunteer? 12 comments
The one where I asked for a volunteer to help me get my blog back in working order when it crashed and I was considering migrating to Wordpress. Yes, so many of my posts seem to be about my technical problems ;)

New Hair...Yeah Yeah 11 comments
The one where I posted pics of different hairstyles on my face and asked for your advice before I got a new haircut. It's amazing how sometimes the most meaningless posts can attract more comments than expected.

My Man!!! 11 comments
The one where I introduced you all to Duncan after we started going out.

Ben Behaving Badly 10 comments
The one where I gave my opinion on the arrest and subsequent sacking of Ben Cousins from the Eagles.

News Flash!!!!!! 10 comments
The one where I asked you all to guess my 'big news'....which of course was that I was going out with Duncan.

The Pictures Tell The Story 10 comments
The one where I announced my engagement to Duncan.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Zeehan and Rosebery

While we were staying in Strahan we did a day trip to Zeehan where my nan was born in 1913 and grew up and then to Rosebery where she worked for a while. We called her from Zeehan and she was so excited that we were there. I bought her a book detailing the history of Zeehan which even had her class photo from 1925 in it. I was planning to give it to her for Christmas but ended up giving it to her when we got back. She said "Oh no, don't wait 'til Christmas. I might be dead by then!" (she's 95).

Sadly both Zeehan and Rosebery are now shrinking towns due to the closure of the mines which once enabled Zeehan to be the third biggest town in Tasmania. Now they have populations of approximately 1000 and 1500 respectively.

See the fierce ocean in the background? They don't call Tassie's west coast the 'wild west' for nothing.





























Catholic church in Zeehan.












Old Anglican church (no longer used).









My nan lived in a house like this. She reckons hers has now been pulled down.

























Post office.











Bank.














Hotel. We took these photos for Nan mostly.








Dunc walking down the main street (called Main St - original huh?)









The old Zeehan School of Mines and Metallurgy. My nan learnt to type here.










It's now the West Coast Pioneers' Museum.




































The old Gaiety Theatre. It's no longer used but is being renovated.


























Rosebery Mine.











Rosebery.

Friday, August 08, 2008

A Plug

I don't plug lots of events but there's one I do enjoy every year.

The Perth Women's Convention is on Saturday 16th August. Rock up at about 8:30 to register and it wraps up about 4:30. Just follow the link to get more information about the conference.

In a nutshell, it involves about 500 Christian women mainly from Perth but some (like me) from country WA too, gathering together to hear talks, sing and eat together and enjoy a time of fellowship. There are women of all ages, denominations and stages of faith.

Those of you who are regular readers of my blog will know I don't like crowds unless I know a few people. Yet I don't find it scary so chances are you'll be okay too. If you want to come but are worried about not knowing anyone, just think, you will know ME! :)

Click on the link above to register online. You have until Monday 11th August.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Strahan

Our next destination was the little fishing town of Strahan on the west coast. This is a beautiful spot and the number of accommodation places is just astounding. Apparently it is very popular in the summer months but in winter there are not as many tourists around.

We spent three nights in Strahan and our time here included a cruise on the Gordon River.




Coming into Queenstown on the way to Strahan. Spectacular but scary drive.










The cabin we stayed in.














Gordon River cruise.






































































Fish farm.















































We stopped for a guided walk of the rainforest.










Dunc walking ahead.















Me in the rainforest. It was a freezing day!













Determining the age of the wood.











Back on board again.





















Next we stopped for a tour of Sarah Island (cool name, eh?)










Sarah Island was Tassie's first penal settlement (older than Port Arthur).












Our very entertaining tour guide.





















































Ruined cells.









Sarah Island hosted petty criminals but these men were treated terribly.



































Duncan reckoned I looked like a burglar in my black beanie.

Hogarth Falls.

Us watching the falls a fallin'.