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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.....

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.