I've had a fairly adventurous past two days, lots of fun stuff!

Today I did a handstand at work, the kids were trying to get the other guy staff member to do one and he looked pretty uncomfortable about doing it so I thought I'd do one to show that it could be done. He thanked me, but I don't know if that was sarcasm cos then he had to do one or be shown up, or cos it made it easier. Either way, he did one too. Both of us had stuff fall out of our pockets and we had to cut the handstands short to grab them up before the kids nicked them. As soon as stuff started falling out they were in like vultures dosed up on 3 litres of straight caffeine! Zoom! Oooh, a mobile phone! Oooh some money! etc...

Yesterday was even more exciting! To start with, a water pipe to one of the bubblers came off and water was shooting straight up into the air and making a glorious fountain (yes, I know... level 3) So after bravely kicking the power switch off (it was one of those water cooling bubblers and the water was coming down on the powerpoint where it was plugged in) and hitting the water to make sure I wouldn't get electrocuted I stuck my thumb over the end of the pipe and got very drenched. Was a lot of fun :-). I tried to stick the pipe back into the rear of the bubbler and only succeeded in getting even wetter. Then we found the water mains for that area and turned it off. No more playing in the water, but also no more wasting of the water ... yes ... level 3.

That night was the last Outbreak meeting also, for the camp, not the disease or pimples, and Mike was gracious enough to give me a lift... We were chatting away in the car when we realised we'd driven straight past the exit we needed to leave the motorway from. So we thought we'd wing it and take the long way around off the next exit. So we took the exit and were going to turn right... Only to find we couldn't turn right at that intersection and there were too many cars around to change across 3 lanes and turn left. We decided we'd hang a left at the next intersection and circle around, so got into the left lane ... And there's this big sign with an arrow pointing left with a big fat ugly stupid red line straight through the middle of it, with a wonderful little caption that says, "no left turn". And we were back on the motorway and running out of gas. We had enough to probably make it to the meeting had we just gone the normal way and not mixed our exit.

Next exit was southbank with all the joys of one-way streets and silly roads with a severe lack of gas stations, but as we were attempting to manoevre our way back onto the motorway going south, Mike spotted a petrol station! We swerved across a few lanes and managed to make it to the gas pump with a bit of a cheer from both of us. Aaaannnnd then we reversed and drove over the other side of the gas pump so Mike could actually reach the nozzle to the tank. We managed to get back on the motorway and took the right exit, and with a bit of random driving around the rabbit warren of roads that Steve's house is located in the middle of, we found the house. (the meeting was at Steve's). Only about half an hour or so, and a bit, late. But the meeting went well, and Outbreak is gonna be awesome! :-D Can't wait for it. Leaving 8:30 monday morning.

The trip home was relatively uneventful, we eventually made it onto the freeway after some backstreet driving and home again. Mike was glad that I had the referdex, so we were both to blame for the shenanigans. Was an experience though, and good fun.

Reminded me that when we're going on the front foot and doing something good for God, and making a difference for His kingdom, then Satan notices and he ups the ante and looks for ways to slow us down. Granted that was probably just our silliness and lack of paying attention that got us lost in the backstreets of brisbane, but it still reminded me. If you are making a stand for God, and doing what you know He wants you to do, expect that satan will be there ready to do whatever he can to drag you back to mediocrity. And you can be assured that he knows your weak points and will be on the warpath. But no matter what satan throws at you, if you keep your focus on God, you'll only get stronger.

1 Peter: 3-9

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, Who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

I had to buy a new umbrella today. My old one is so munted now that it's almost unusable as an umbrella. Last week one of the spines on it was broken so it kinda sagged a bit. A few days ago another of the spines right next to the broken one succumbed to the peer pressure of the evil snapped bit of wire and stopped working also. So now it's about half sag and half umbrella, but it doesn't even go all the way up anymore.

So I dropped into the cheapy little $2 store in garden city and got myself an $8 umbrella that will probably break after about 17.843 uses. But! It's bigger than my old one which means:
A) it now won't fit in my bag so I can't just let it live in there in case of random rain.
and B) It might actually keep more than just my head dry when it does rain.

Maybe I'll get another one to leave in my bag for the random rain... hmm, see how I feel next time i'm near an umbrella shop.

I wonder if I'm an impulse purchaser... People who know me, let me know! Do I impulse buy a lot?

ooh, and the boss is probably going to put me on permanent part-time in October, which means my pay rate goes down a little, but I get sick days and annual leave! Woohoo!

My sister got married on saturday!

'Twas very exciting! Well, the saturday was anyway. I went up on Thursday night so I'd be there on Friday to help set up the church and buy some wedding shoes, ties etc. I noticed quite quickly during the day how much stress people must be under the day before their own wedding, as Michelle was quite ready to bite the head off anyone who crossed her in the slightest way. I did what I could to help while avoiding her when possible. Which doesn't really sound good, but I like my head where it is, and left her to concentrate on giving orders. We managed to pick out some matching ties that she was happy with, then she went to get her hair done, and mum and I went shoe shopping. Bought the second pair of shoes I tried on, in the first shop I went into, and was done. (Hooray for fast shoe shopping!)

Brett (at the time the fiancee, now husband), one of his groomsmen, and myself went and stayed at the house of a friend of mine on the friday night. The girls had taken over my parents house and it was kinda chaotic... and we wanted hot showers. Was good to stay at my mate's house, as he was a good friend of mine who was only married a few months ago, and I was best man for that wedding. We watched the footy and went to bed.

In the morning Sam, my mate's wife, cooked us wonderful pancakes with caramel sauce for breakfast... mmm... and we watched a movie then started getting ready.

Everything ran pretty smoothly from then on. We all managed to get dressed and to the church on time. I ushered people in and gave them bubble blowers. There was a bonus of being one of the ushers, I got to be outside when Chelle arrived. So I got some good photos.

She looked beautiful, of course, and the wedding went really well with only one minor stuff up when Brett said, "With this wing I thee red." Which got a nice laugh. Michelle managed to stay upright coming up the aisle, and in so doing lost the $40 she had bet on falling over.

Reception was fun, good food, fun chatting with people I don't see very often. Danced with my sister, of course, and took lots of photos. Over the whole day I took about 100 or so photos. If you want to see them I have them on my mp3 player and can show people if you want. Not posting them on the web.

I got lots of hugs, which was really nice. My old group of friends while I was at uni was very huggy, and when you got a hug they really meant it and were genuinely happy to see you. My friends on the coast give the same hugs, and it's something I miss every now and again. It's really cool getting those type of hugs, where they're happy to give you a good solid hug, not just a bit of a pat on the back and let go. But then, not everyone is a huggy type of person and some people just aren't comfortable doing that. I think you need to be really comfortable with people for those hugs. What's other people's thoughts on this?