THE CHICKENS HAVE HATCHED

Papers signed. Loan commenced. Move successful. Mission accomplished. SYDNEY PROPERTY MARKET CRACKED.

 

Yes, I have now moved. It was a bit of a nightmare, but in so many obvious ways God’s provision showed itself – and without it the moving process would have gone seriously pear-shaped. But more about that later.

 

Since Saturday night I have been living in MY place, but it was only tonight that I re-connected all the cables to where I thought I remembered they were supposed to go, flicked the switches, pushed the on button and watched the computer flicker into life – and with great relief observed an entirely normal boot and instant internet conection. So I’m now connected to the world again. Not much time to write a whole lot now so I’ll leave it at that.

Less than 48 hours…

…before I pick up the keys to MY place (or at least a place that I will own approximately 26% of).

 

I had a bit of a look today, to make sure all was as it should be. There was no power so I couldn’t test the lights and stove, but they all worked when I saw it the first time. As one would expect it looks a bit different empty. The floor will need a wash, as will the shower tiles and a few spots on the walls. In due course some of the insect screens will need replacing, together perhaps with the window frames – but I knew that to start with. Happily it seems there is no need to do an immediate interior re-paint, but I have some colourful ideas for if and when I decide to do that.

 

Ahead is quite possibly the busiest and most exhausting week of the year for me, but that’s OK because at the end I

 

 

 

 

stop

 

 

 

 

paying

 

 

 

 

rent.

 

 

THAT will be something to be happy about!

World Youth Day – a view from the host city

Let me start this by saying clearly that I’m not a Catholic – in the sense recognized by the church headed up in Rome. So this is not a view from inside this event, but rather from inside the city it is taking place in, and hopefully there won’t be too much grounds for accusations of bias. However I do share quite a lot in common with them. Whatever they say that’s in the Bible, I will tend to agree with, which means that there is very much we are in agreement about. Though I think they could do well to lose some of their doctrines that are not scripture based, these things are less important compared to the common bond of faith in salvation by Jesus Christ.

 

I was asked at work last weekend if I’d be attending any World Youth Day events, which I am not. “Not your brand?” asked one of my workmates. I think that is a pretty good summary actually. Besides which I have work to do, and when I’m not at work at this time I have packing to do (refer to earlier posts). But the atmosphere has served to make me pause and think, a few times, that I’d perhaps quite like to be in on it.

 

World Youth Day pilgrims. By their orange backpacks shall you recognise them. And by their flags – from every nation, tribe and tongue on earth, or so it seems. If you don’t live or work anywhere near central Sydney and are wondering what this week has been like here, I can say first hand that they have taken over – in quite a positive way. You just can’t help but notice the huge scale of it all. The “biggest Mass ever in Australia” on Tuesday night (that will be old redundant news by midday tomorrow!) was something I only caught snippets of on the news. But it’s clear that Catholic youth these days are alive with the joy of their faith, delighting in raucous celebration and modern music. There’s even a “rapping priest” here. There’s more to this mob than the candles, bells, incense and incomprehensible recitations of high-church liturgy (something that some Anglican churches are equally as guilty of as some Catholic ones). It was also great to see our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, not a Catholic but most certainly a Christian, warmly welcome the pilgrims and heartily endorse their faith. The pilgrimage has more often than not been the lead story in the media (though Qantas cutting 1500 jobs managed to displace it on last night’s news) and every talkback radio station is talking about it.

 

These people are everywhere in the CBD and in quite a large number of surrounding suburbs too. Not that I have really been in the thick of the crowds at all – but one can’t help noticing pockets of them here there and everywhere around Central station. No doubt many are based at churches, schools or homes in the suburbs between my home and my workplace in the city. Driving in early Wednesday morning I found myself first to stop at a red light for a front row view of a mass (excuse the pun) of young Brazilians crossing the road, their mood as colourful as their clothes and the flags on their shoulders, and giving a further sign that they are visitors by their impeccable road sense, the group breaking in two with the latter group halting at the kerb the moment the red walk light started to flash in a most un-Sydney-like fashion. One of them gave me a “thumbs up” as he passed in front of me, which I cheerfully returned as Jon Bon Jovi gave his rocking, uplifting musical greeting “Have a nice day!” loudly through my car radio. As the twilight was fading that night, I made my way past Central towards where my car was parked, past a circle of them (some or all obviously from New Zealand), hand in hand dancing around their circle and singing of the joy of their God. Such a different atmosphere from the usual head-down, avoid-eye-contact, get-there-as-quick-as-possible mood of the people there. In fact, it seems the mood of the whole city has been lifted considerably. On these occasions just mentioned and others, it has been obvious that these people are high on drug-free, alcohol-free, harm-free partying joy. It makes me think this must be something of what Sydney was like for the Olympics (though probably even a higher mood than that), something I unfortunately missed by living in Melbourne at the time.

 

Of course there has inevitably been a bit of controversy too, as aggrieved and dissenting people have cynically timed their airing of grievances in the media to deliver maximum exposure, and presumably maximum damage. There has also been a rather silly law put in place forbidding anyone from “annoying” the pilgrims (whatever that means) which was subsequently challenged and struck down. Silly not only because it undermines the right to free speech, but also because when you see these people, the thought has to be “why would you?”. Unless of course you’re as much of a killjoy as the people of the militantly negative No to Pope Coalition who promise to try to convert the pilgrims to their own hopeless world view as well as hand out condoms, in the misguided belief that it will make their trip to Sydney “safer”. The response has been mostly what a Christian observer would expect, one American visitor on TV one night saying nonchalantly, “Ah, it doesn’t really bother me, I just pray for em…” One could do worse than quote them a line from U2’s song One: “You act like you never had love, and you want me to go without”. If there was any doubt about what they constantly think about left in what they say, then their logo certainly says it all! What they clearly don’t understand is that there is more to life than rooting, bonking and shagging to your base primal instinct’s content whether that be the natural or un-natural version, then killing all the babies that inevitably, though however inconveniently, will result – before they ever see the light of day.

 

Speaking of the one this small but vocal group oppose, no discussion of this event would be complete without mentioning the pope and his visit to Sydney. He has of course received a noisy and raucous welcome by the mind-bogglingly huge crowds here. I have been most encouraged by how he has taken the trouble to meet with leaders of other Christian churches, and spoken of the need for all Christians to unite behind what we hold in common and not be divided by differing issues of doctrine. He has also offered friendship and peace to Jewish, Muslim and other religious leaders. Could he be playing the part of an agent of new-found revival and unity that God will bring to the Christian world? Though I don’t see him as infallible or as the voice of God himself and will not join him in following the Lord’s prayer by “hail Mary”, the pope gets a big thumbs-up from me regarding how he has made his presence felt here.

 

It will be interesting to see what Sydney is like once the party is over. I would like to think that the attention the Catholic pilgrimage has got might focus a great many minds on the big questions of life and cause many hearts to soften, and eventually turn to Christ. All this would be God’s work though, only the Holy Spirit can save Sydney’s soul.

 

If I didn’t have so much packing to do today I would quite like to have joined part of the walk from the harbour bridge towards Randwick, as it is clear that the organisers are inviting all people, not just Catholics, to share the experience. It would have been great to meet and chat on the road with some of the many international visitors and talk about what we have in common. Alas I was too busy.

State of Origin’s resurrection night

Almost 2 weeks ago now, but STILL WORTH CELEBRATING.

 

State of Origin series wins: Qld 13 NSW 12.

 

THAT’s how it should be, the good guys ahead. Not a pretty win in game 3, but one of the gutsiest ever. Hopefully the Qld pride and passion is back for good now, after it went AWOL for much of the 90’s and the early part of this deade. To lose our halfback for 3/4 of the game and still win, just shows who was far and away the better side this year.

Move less than 2 weeks away

Not long to go now and starting to get everything organised.

 

If you’re one of the people who got my email about moving and intends to help, some important info for trying to contact me: The process of changing of my phone and internet over to the new place means I will be without a land line or internet access at home from this coming Monday until I move. I will still be able to read email at work, but my only contact at home will be my mobile. Reception doesn’t seem to be that great around my current area, so text might be the best option.

 

Still trying not to assume it’s all happening until it really does – this is getting harder now!